Book 3 Fire
by ilikepie911
Summary: Starts out right after DOBSII.. Group journey to defeat the firelord. Full of twists and turns: man from the future, betrayals, crazy fights, unknown histories,love and heart break. Main pairings: Maiko, Kataang. I do not own ATLA or any of its characters
1. Prologue

Author's Note: Aiee wassup pplz , its ma first man fic and its startin out during DOBS II right after Zuko jets out after redirecting Ozai's lightinin. O and prior warning OC joins the group, becomes a major character so when you start seeing random parts of guns/ some other war don't get confused just keep reading. Please review, if you guys like it review and I'll keep writing… I pretty much got the major plot down and a bunch of chapters in my head. Thanks.

* * *

Approximately 400 years into the future:

"Hey Rahak catch" a boy shouted as he threw a ball at him.

"Got it," the boy named Rahak shouted back. He twirled the ball in his hand and flung it back but messed up and threw it to the side. "Ack get the ball!" he shouted.

The other boy although didn't respond he just stared at the sky. Rahak looked up to see what was so captivating that he couldn't catch the ball. The sky was dotted with millions of black things. Rahak knew what they were, his cousin said they were airplanes, he had never seen one but he didn't want to stay and watch cause he knew well of their destructive force since he can't talk to his cousin anymore.

"Everyone get back inside now, were being attacked!!" a women shouted. Almost instantly alarms went off and sirens began sounding as everyone rushed back into the school.

"Ok children remember our lock down procedures, everyone under you desks".

Everyone abided her instruction and hid under their respective tables. Then it came, it sounded like and earthquake it felt like the earth beneath his feat would crumble the earth that seemed to faithfully obey him seemed like it wouldn't now. The ceiling of the room was shaking; the glass windows exploded from the sheer power of the shock waves. Some children started crying for their parents but Rahak kept a level head, he needed to get back to protect his family with his dad. He knew his dad was a great earth bender, but he also wanted to be there to watch his back. After a few minutes of constant bombardment the shaking stopped. He got out from under his desk and bolted out of the school.

"Rahak get back here now! you cant risk going outside" the teacher shouted.

Rahak ignored it, and continued out of his classroom. Once outside, the streets were baron and littered with gapping holes from the bombs, in the distance he could hear the rumble of tanks and a few gunshots. If he wasn't so scared he would have realized it sounded like the fight scenes in the movie and games he watched and played. The street was the main street but their town wasn't that big, so the road was only a four-lane road with houses and shops on the sides. He ran past the local mart which was no longer there, he stopped and stared for a minute. It had been completely bombed out, the walls all broken down and the interior was on fire. The houses near it had ended with a similar fate He ran towards his house and the amount of gunfire intensified but he ignored it. All he could think about was getting to his family and helping his dad fight back the Republic of Fire.

As he approached his house, he saw scorch marks and upturned boulders scattered with random bullet holes scattered across the wall of his house. A sudden feeling of dread dawned on him as he ran to the door. He burst through his door and was greeted by a horrible sight. His parents and sister were tied up and gagged and held at gunpoint, his father was being interrogated.

"Tell me where your commander is and maybe I won't kill your wife scum!" the ROF (Republic of Fire) soldier shouted. Then turned around to the boy when he heard the door swing open.

"Sir I don't think they know" one of the soldiers stated.

"Yea well lets have some fun any ways" the other responded and smirked while the rest of the group snickered. "Hey boy tell us where the commander is or we'll kill you parents and sister."

It was as if all confidence had left him. This wasn't like the game or movie where the hero would so easily keep a level head in such a situation. Where you could easily side step and pick up a gun on the floor to defend yourself, or you pull one of those amazing shots where you take out all the bad guys. No, Rahak was scared; the men who toward over his nine year old form intimidated him. All of them were made more bulky from their Kevlar and more menacing with their dark red uniforms, and random scars and this threw all his confidence out the window now all he could think of was begging for his family's life.

"I-I I don't know anything" Rahak stuttered. "Please we don't know anything please"

"O we'll see, maybe you'll know something after this" the man nodded at another soldier who smirked and cut open his sister's throat and almost instantly blood sprayed out everywhere.

Rahak screamed and ran at the man. He didn't know why he ran at him to try and stop him somehow but it didn't work for when he opened his eyes he saw his sister fall over lifeless. She hit the floor and her lifeless body twitched as blood continued to flow steadily out of the slit in her throat. Rahak simply fell to his knees and cried. His mother also began to wail until a soldier smacked her hard with the butt of his gun and she slowly stopped. The soldier who started it, probably the leader grabbed Rahak and shoved him to a wall to weaken him then grabbed his arms and held them in place and positioned him right in front of his mom and dad then whispered into his ear.

"Now your gona tell me where the commander is, where is the commander?"

"I don't know _gasp _anything _gasp _I told you _gasp_ please we honestly don't know anything _gasp_ please!" Rahak spoke in between sniffs while he sobbed.

The leader who was holding him pulled out his gun and put it in front of Rahak. He took both his hands and wrapped it around the gun and put it in Rahak's sights so it was like Rahak was aiming. He then repeated, "Where is the commander?"

"I don't know, PLEASE DON'T" Rahak screamed as he looked down the top of the pistol which lead straight to his mother tear stained face. BANG " NOOO! PLEASE, I HATE YOU STOP AAA" Rahak's words turned into sobbing screaming nonsense.

Some of the soldiers chuckled as he desperately tried to pull his hands away to try and run away so he could forget this ever happened unfortunately his small nine year old hands weren't enough to escape the leaders grasp. The leader waited for Rahak to simmer down a bit then moved Rahak's body so the gun he was holding was pointing at his father.

"Now I'm gona ask again, where is the commander?"

"I DON'T KNOW GOD DAMIT PLEASE, WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? WHAT DID WE EVER DO TO YOU? PLEASE STOP!" Rahak was shouting at the top of his lungs, he already lost his entire family to the war all his cousins, uncles, aunts, and now his sister and mother he had to somehow try to convince this devil to leave his father alone.

The leader smirked. "Wrong answer" and he pulled the trigger.


	2. Chapter 1 : The Beginning

Author's note: Sorry but it's a bit back and forth hear, bear with me till later. O and not much Gaang stuff here

* * *

" I want your men to find him and kill him, NOW!" Ozai roared, and the flames from the burning rug rose to the ceiling.

"Lord Ozai, what about the invasion we need to detain the-" the guard was interrupted by Ozai's ball of burning white flames that melted the ground where he stood.

"I said NOW, I WANT HIS HEAD!" Ozai roared once again. Then quietly he hissed, "You dare do defy me again and I will not miss"

"Yyess s-ssire" the guard stammered and almost ran out of the throne room.

* * *

Mean while Zuko ran through the halls, swords drawn as doors flashed by him, his note to Mai had already been delivered. People gave him quizzical looks as he ran down the hallway of the underground bunker. _This is it_, he thought_ I'm a full-blown traitor, Agni this is much better than the war room. _Zuko was exhilarated, the past few weeks he couldn't be himself he felt like an empty shell unless he was around Mai, and now he felt more alive than ever, especially since he redirected lightning flawlessly, against the man whom he should have realized was evil all along. The man who never really did love him and who never had the power to take his honor away, and because of that he realized he really did loose his honor and so did his country. Now he was going to regain it even if it means going through the man who calls himself Father.

"There, get the Prince! He is a traitor orders from Ozai himself arrest him!" a guard from behind Zuko ordered.

This brought Zuko back to reality. _Damit, how do I get out of here_? He passed a window and saw the fleet of war balloons._ That's it!_ He ran toward the surface. He knew there should be a hanger at the rear of the palace on the surface… but he didn't know how to get there. _Shoulda paid more attention in those dam war meetings_. Zuko thought as he continued to run at full sprint toward a staircase.

He ran up and rounded a corned and came face to face with 3 guards already in fire bending stances. Before he could even move, a fireball was launched at him; he quickly jumped to avoid it and smacked the nearest one with the flat of his sword. He fell back to the ground and went low, sweeping his leg in an ark to trip the second; he then flung his sword at the last one who threw the fireball brought him self up and grabbed his sword from the chest of the third and ran down the hallway.

* * *

"Alright, Listen up squad this is how it is" a man surrounded by a group of crouched men said.

They were atop a cliff, underneath that cliff was flat land leading to a building surrounded by human sized long ditches (trenches).

"UBN intelligence states that this facility is a research facility code name: Time zone. Our objective: to find out what this is and extract the information should it be useful. Our ultimate goal is to destroy it."

"Any help?" another whispered.

"Nope" the one in the middle responded. " Any other questions?"

"Can we call for reinforcements or even hope for rescue?"

"Assume not, but if so the UBN and the Fire Republic are fighting a few clicks south of here, if they win we might get some" the one in the middle said. " Ok Ton-Lei: transport, Rahak: Guards, Vlack: spotter. We go in first, then Rahak takes point understood?"

"Sir understood sir," the group whispered in union

"Black lotus's move out"

The majority of the group moved away from the cliff into the bushes, while the one named Rahak and Vlack laid down at the edge of the cliff guns pointed outward at the trench.

Rahak looked through his lens and calmed his breath and closed his eyes to further bring himself in to a state of pure and utter calm.

* * *

Katara was kneeling beside Aang as he addressed the crowd of warrior in front of him. The battle was lost and Azula outsmarted them yet again. She could tell Aang wanted to breakdown and cry, well so did she. The faces of joy in the crowd just a few minutes ago were diminished as the all looked upon the five huge black metal plated war balloons that darkened the sky. She still couldn't believe how close they were, but nothing seemed to work out good for their little group. They boarded the bison and started to say their good byes. She looked around the group, Sokka was lost in thought as he hugged dad, and Toph had an annoyed look on her face almost frustrated. Aang sadly turned back to sit on Appa's head, Haru sadly hugged his dad, Teo talked with his father and The Duke said his last good bye's to pipsqueak. It was a sad moment but she knew in her heart it wasn't over, they would win.

* * *

Zuko was panting hard, all this sprinting and random skirmishes were getting to him and he was tiring fast. But he was fast approaching the hanger. He knew it would be mostly empty and would get a light craft but he wanted something light and fast anyway.

He saw the hanger doors, he began to pick up speed jumped and kicked the door open. He ran in and saw 4 balloons and one larger war balloon. He ran to the nearest small one. Jumped in and began to burn the anchoring ropes. He looked up to see almost 13 soldiers running through the broken door at him. Some were already shooting balls of fire at him. he tried to protect the balloon as much as possible. Realizing it was impossible he began bending as much fire into the balloon for as much lift as possible. He started to take off. He noticed others were jumping into balloons to pursue him._ Agni they don't give up_. He desperately tried to get some distance to no avail as he rose away from the hanger.

The hanger entrance was at the bottom of the mountain at the facing the sea; on the other side of the mountain was the palace. He began pulling out over the sea followed in hot pursuit of another balloon which was also followed by another 2 and a soon to be airborne war balloon. The one nearest him began shooting balls of fire, he deflected and returned fire.

Zuko would loose this aerial fight because it was hard for him to steer, propel and fight all at one; the other one had three people two firing at him and one steering. _Damit I cant loose this fast! I have to get to the avatar, noo__!__"_.

He then saw a flash of light and lightning shot the balloon down, burned through the sky to the ocean below. Zuko was stunned, who could have shot lightning? Although he didn't have time to think about that now he needed to focus on getting away and following that white fluffy cloud which he assumed was the avatar bison.

A hooded figure with a very muscular build was racing over the mountaintops to the back of the palace to hopefully escape on a boat. Then he saw it. There was a single fire nation balloon in aerial combat with another. Odd the man thought. Why would two fire benders be fighting each other right after an eclipse? He then saw 2 more rise in pursuit of the first balloon. _It seems someone needs the dragons help_. The man smirked. He prepared and went through the motions of lighting and fired a powerful blast of lighting at the pursuing balloon. The man lowered his arms as the balloon burned to the sea bellow it. The muscular hooded man wondered whom it could be that was trying to escape._ My nephew?_ He thought. _No, he is too far down the path his father has put in front of him_. The man sighed and continued on.


	3. Chapter 2 : Attack and Escape

Authors note: Ok the jumping around should simmer down now :P any ways please R&R i need som feed back

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Rahak and Vlack were lying atop a cliff around 100 yards away from the research facility they were about to hit, behind them the rest of the team hid in the bushes where the forest started. The team consisted of the leader, Major Jee, a healer, two standards: Ton Lei and Vlack, and a sniper specialist, Rahak.

Rahak opened his eye, peered down the scope and focused on one of the guards, the other two had their backs turned. He took a quick breath and shoved the bullet shaped rock out of his gun with as much force he could muster through earth bending.

"Target down" Vlack said as the man he was looking at fell to the ground.

Rahak moved the gun to the next one and repeated the process.

"Targed down, careful rear guard took notice, take him out"

Rahak saw the guard as the guard curiously rounded the corner of the trench that was over 1.5 yards away, he took him out before he could even gasp at the other dead guard. Another turned toward the two fallen guards.

"We got a problem!, their noticing" Vlack hissed to Major Jee.

"Right, Lotus's let loose Ton Lei get them over there. LETS KIL SOM R.O.F'S"

Major Jee the leader of the team used fire to shoot himself in the air, Ton Lei created a slab of earth for everyone to jump on and two other guards fell as Rahak and Vlack began shooting freely. The healer Izod (I'm bad with names ok…) and Vlack jumped on then Ton Lei began earth bending them across the 200 yard field toward the trenches. Rahak stood up and shot a pillar of earth under him that propelled him high into the air.

* * *

Zuko was tried to shoot the other two balloons down but they were too far away, they traded a bit of fire but the range was too far. Zuko was safe for now but he realized that he was heading to the avatar and he would be leading these guys right to them since the showed no signs of letting up. So he decided on another approach.

A few miles away on the main war balloon Captain Zein stood on the observation deck observing the Fire princes craft. It was a ways off but they were keeping up. He knew the prince would have to land somewhere and if he didn't, Zein would rather chase him to the ends of the earth than face the Fire Lords wrath.

" Captain Zuko's vessel shows no signs of yielding and the location of the lighting has yet to be confirmed, should we tell one balloon to break pursuit and find it?"

"No, continue to follow the traitor, if he truly did go against his father his only refuge is what's left of the Earth Kingdom or, the avatar" he smirked as he thought of the possible promotions and praise.

"Yes sir" the soldier said and turned. "Continue on course tell the Scout balloons to fall into position"

Zein looked back at the viewing window and noticed the Prince's craft dropping rather quickly. He knew that he hadn't been hit by anything, the sky's were clear so that ruled out birds, and birds traveled in flocks at this altitude so his balloons should have been hit too. "What is he up too"

Zuko was going to jump off the balloon and fight them head on. He steadied himself mentally for the fight. He was expecting Azula to be there, and with her probably Mai, and Ty Lee. Perhaps Mai would be merciful, but his main objective was to slip them up and try and cause some damage to her ship and hopefully throw her off his trail and thus the Avatars trail.

Zuko's balloon was almost touching the treetops as the trees flew by him. He gulped once, looked up to the sky. _Agni protect me_, and he jumped. He fell for less than a second before being bombarded by branches and flung like a rag doll through the tree branches as he bounced from branch to branch. He knew this would happen so he tensed his muscles as much as possible to avoid serious internal damage. The smaller branches he simply went through and the larger once he tried to bounce off with his arms or legs, he was nearing the bottom and his plan of bouncing from branch to branch at high speeds was working until a thick branch appeared right in his face and the next thing he saw was total and utter blackness as his limp body twirled to the ground.

* * *

Rahak was almost floating 60 feet in the air after flying 50 yards in the air from the cliff, it didn't feel like he was falling or rising he was just there. So he took advantage of the momentary stillness and abruptly brought his rifle up to his check and aimed at a random ROF soldier and suddenly he started falling, but Rahak, being the sharp shooter he is, kept his aim and shot that soldier down. As he fell he continued this taking out around 4 more soldiers as he fell towards the enemy trenches.

Two guards had been watching Rahak take out their comrades and noticed this menace was going to land right where they were standing. They saw him fast approaching and ran and took cover for the huge Earthquake that would happen.

Unfortunately for them Rahak was good at landing quiet, since that's what got him into the special ops division in the first place. So when he landed he calmly absorbed the shock of landing by dispersing his momentum through the earth evenly so no shockwave was created. He looked at the two guards cowering in the corner at the trench awaiting some huge explosion.

He smirked. "Hey you two, I'm over here not in that corner" he said.

They both turned around abruptly but they were too late and turned to the barrel of Rahak's pistol and rifle. He shot them then and their. Both guards crumpled over, blood pouring out of their skulls.

He turned to survey the situation. Alarms were ringing loudly and the flashing alarm red light from the compound could be seen through the night. He was near it and judging from the lack of fighting and gunfire in front of him he knew he was closest to the building. He turned to see the long line of trench behind him. He saw the rest of his team causing havoc and destruction. The bright flames from the Major illuminated the water whips and earth spikes of the healer, Vlack and Ton Lei. He sighed._ Looks like I'm securing the entrance myself._

He looked at the door under the flashing red light and saw six Royal Fire Guards step out. He paled a bit and his eyes widened. They were the Fire Republic's best just like he was the UNB's (United Nations of Benders) best. He could easily take them with the help of his team, but alone he was no match. They caught sight of him amongst the other two dead guards and began moving to him._ Fuck._

* * *

The gaang plus Teo, The Duke, and Haru were now walking. Appa had carried them as far as he could but with the extra weight of his heavy steel armor and 3 more people it was no easy task. So now they walked in silence. Sokka was brooding, his plan had failed he had been outsmarted by that damn witch of a princess, Azula. His mistake cost him so much, the entire invasion force was now prisoner to the fire nation, they all might end up dead too. He also didn't know where they would be taken so he couldn't even plan a rescue attempt. He failed when he was a kid to protect his mom, now he failed his dad and the rest of his tribesmen. What's next? His sister, then what? The Avatar? He grunted, then sighed he had failed.

Aang was undergoing a similar chain of thought. He had failed the world at by running away 100 years ago, he failed yet again at Ba Sing Se and now he failed during the eclipse. In Ba Sing Se it had only been Azula and Zuko, and still he couldn't take them, he probably would have lost a lot sooner if it were not for Katara. Even with three elements he couldn't over power them. Then at the Eclipse he couldn't even catch Azula with the mastered three elements with him. The only time he succeeded was at the North Pole, and that was with the Avatar State. Without it he was useless, he just couldn't do this, it was too hard or he was too slow.

He began to feel like the weakest of all the Avatars. All the others traveled alone and mastered there elements themselves, but here he was with a group of protectors and he still couldn't do it. He sighed and continued to walk. Looking around he noticed everyone was sad and seemed to be beating themselves up just like he was. He sighed again and looked up at the sky. _Roku, I need your help._


	4. Chapter 3: Zein

Zuko suddenly awoke with a start. He looked around and was confused for he was in a dense forest. The last thing he remembered was redirecting his fathers lightning, the thought brought a small smirk on his face. Then everything came rushing back to him in a wave and wondered how much time had passed. He looked at his body looking for any bruises; if he was bruising then too much time had passed, luckily there were none. He got up slowly to prevent himself from getting dizzy. He began jogging west. The avatar was heading west he was probably heading toward the Earth Kingdom. He sighed._ It's going to be a long walk_. Then almost too abruptly he stumbled into a clearing and unfortunately into a currently landed War balloon with a Scout balloon near it and one in the air. He stood too shocked by his own luck, he was still shaking off the effects of unconsciousness.

Zein sat in front of the main observatory window. He was eating some cold roast duck on some slightly stale bread. Then he saw it, at the very edge of a clearing he noticed something red pop out of it through his peripheral vision and he quickly turned to get a better view. His eyes widened and he quickly shouted "ZGHRUKO". Unfortunately it came out muffled and unrecognizable due to the piece of turtle duck and bread in his mouth.

"Excuse me sir?" replied a nearby soldier.

"Mobilize your men NOW, Zuko has just entered the clearing!" he ordered.

"Should we call the scout down sir?" asked the soldier

"What? NO, just get your damn men out there and get ZUKO" he shouted as he shot two small fire blasts at him to emphasize his point. "and HURRY!" he bellowed. He turned and ran to the exit, he couldn't rely on this useless crew if they questioned him on things like that and how on earth did that Scout not see him!

Zuko was about to turn tail and run but he stopped. He turned around and drew his swords. It was time he stopped running, he narrowed his eyes, it was time he faced his destiny and that was protecting the avatar. He had already decided this and now he was actually going to do it, he was choosing to fight his own people to do what was right. Before it was simply for survival, for himself but not any more, he was going to grow up and fight. For once he was going to fight alone, without his uncle. He was going to fight to prove to himself that he was worthy of redemption from his uncle. _Remember your basics _was all that went through his mind as he ran towards the balloon.

He realized that they already knew he was coming since some soldiers already had the weapons drawn. He jumped up and kicked one down, swung his swords to hit the other soldiers. They both locked for a few seconds before Zuko lunged at him with all his weight, knocking him off balance, he then stabbed him in the chest. He turned and saw about 12 soldiers filing out of the War balloon.

Zein fell into a fire bending stance once outside, his crew were following suit, some drew swords, others pulled bows and prepared arrows while others still went into their own stances. Zein narrowed his eyes at Zuko, he still remembered Zuko's defeat three years ago against his father. _Pitiful_. "Banished Prince Zuko I am Commander Zein, tonight I take you as my prisoner to your father, you are a wanted criminal now"

Zuko snorted. "Like I haven't heard that one before"

"Sorry, I missed something," Zein smirked. "Your wanted Dead or Alive, your father wants your head"

Zuko's eyes widened and he paled a bit. _No, no it couldn't be true_. He screamed in rage as his swords lit up on fire and he charged at Zein and his men.

Zein quickly fell to the back of his little army. "Attack!" he shouted.

Zuko sliced the air and a flame extension of his sword flew at the nearest man who wasn't' expecting it and was hit full force. He then swiped his sword at one while using the other to defend against another soldier on the other side of him. He turned to the soldier who just attacked him and kicked him in the stomach at the same time sticking his sword out at the other stabbing him in the arm. He twirled and narrowly avoided an arrow as it whizzed by his head. He did a 360 to avoid the arrow and as he ended his twirl he stuck his arm out shooting a ball of fire at the archer who was forced to dodge it. Two soldiers decided to attack him at the same time but he was too fast, they stuck their swords at him at the same time, he jumped up and landed on their outstretched swords, then used that leverage to jump behind the group of soldiers straight for Zein.

Zein saw him jump up from the crowd. He raised an eyebrow, clearly he was a little impressed that he survived so far without breaking a sweat. He saw Zuko flawlessly fall into a fire bending stance right in front of him. Zein smirked " I'm a fire bending master and from what I hear you still are not". At this Zuko, clearly infuriated, ran at him and sent a few balls of fire at him, which Zein easily dissipated, Zein jumped and kicked a blast at him. Zuko was forced to stop his charge as he fell back to dodge it. Zein landed and swept his leg and an arc of flame extended at Zuko causing him to back away. He knew he had to keep Zuko at a distance because of his swords.

Zuko was about to jump and attack with his swords when he noticed a soldier about to attack him. He quickly sidestepped and the sword passed by him, Zuko then shoved the hilt of his sword into the soldiers face. The soldier fell back. Zuko then moved to the next as he dodged yet another ball of fire from Zein. He swung his sword and fire extended form it burning another soldier. When Zuko turned he saw an onslaught of three fireballs headed for him. He dodged it by falling to the floor on his back as the balls passed narrowly over his face, the heat causing him to sweat momentarily. He jumped back up to face Zein.

Everything had paused for a moment. Zuko had somehow managed to take out 6 of his 11 soldiers leaving 5 left. Two archers, one bender and two non-benders, he realized this battle was loosing, but one look at Zuko and he realized he wouldn't last very long. He smirked and decided to keep up the heat then shot out a bunch of fire balls. His soldiers figured this to be a chance for them all to attack

Zuko was dissipated the first few balls then he felt a searing pain on his arm, he turned and saw an arrow sticking out of it, and suddenly felt very hot as the 2 balls of fire hit him square in the chest. Pain flooded his thoughts and the smell of burning flesh brought back memories of the Agni Kai. All the pain from that memory plus the physical pain from the two hits and the arrow in his arm made him want to fall over and faint, allowing blackness to take over and end the pain. _Never give up without a fight_. No not yet. He forced himself to stay conscious and turned to the archer, he knew the arm with the arrow was now useless so he flung that sword at the archer.

The archer's eyes widened as half a broad sword flew at his chest, before he could recover from the shock of a flying broad sword he was struck.

Zein was surprised he took so much and still continued to fight. _Is he really weak? Or was Jee right?_ He ran and sent another fireball, he had to end this soon, and Zuko would not give up not until they were all dead.

Zuko turned and stabbed another soldier and flung his body at Zein's oncoming fire blast, he then pulled his dagger out and flung it at another soldiers face. He then saw one soldier fire bend a bunch of punches and kicks at him while Zien sent an arc of flames out. Zuko calmed him self and stuck his arms out at both attacks and absorbed both of them. The energy overfilled him and he took a deep breath taking in the last bits of the fire and exhaled deeply releasing all the energy from his fist and shot it all straight at the last fire bender before turning to Zein.

Zein stopped dumbfounded._ Impossible, only masters can do that_. Even Zein couldn't do that since he attained mastery through military promotion. Even then only those who truly wanted to learn it could. Thus the only people who did were those who weren't looking for destruction. The only one he knew to do that was General Iroh and Commander Jeong Jeong. He sighed; obviously he underestimated his opponent and would loose this fight. He would do his last move, the move that got him mastery. He shot as many fireballs at him as he could. Jumped high in the air and brought his heel down to where he thought Zuko was, a huge blue flame was trailing his foot and he landed down with an explosion. When the smoke cleared, Zuko's body wasn't there.

While Zuko was in the air he rolled under Zein so that Zuko ended up where Zein was standing before he jumped. When Zein turned around confused as to where Zuko left, Zuko's sword was already at his throat.

Zein eyes widened, he had just lost it right there, Zuko just defeated his 12 men plus himself, a fire bending master! He looked at Zuko with his sword extended to his throat and for once Zein was not afraid to die. He had fought his best and had been bested by an honorable opponent, he didn't fight dirty by taunting or angering, yet he still fought thirteen on one without a complaint and here Zuko seemed to be offering surrender to him. Zein decided he didn't want it. If the Fire Lord had banished his own son not because he was a weak failure then the Fire Lords judgment was clearly wrong and perhaps, just maybe, Lieutenant Jee was right. With that thought he opened his mouth and said " It was an honor fighting you, Prince Zuko". He somberly lowered his head and awaited death.

"Don't go back, head to the Earth kingdom till this is over" Zuko replied and smaked him across the head knocking him unconscious.


	5. Chapter 4: Drugged

Author note : OC for this chapter, sounds wierd? bear with me just keep reading don't worry this is only the begining this is still all hapening during WAT period... i'll get to Zuko's entrance to the group soon enough

* * *

_Fuck_. How was he going to get out of this one? Six of them was way too much for him to handle. He was about to send a tremor at them but his hand brushed against his med-pack and he remembered a discussion he had a few days back:

Three days ago:

" Major Jee, I apologize for this but I sympathize with those at the front line" a man in a white lab coat said. The entire Black Lotus team was in a small concrete room inside a well protected bunker In this small room there was a table, on which were three black suitcases. The suitcases were open, insider on a thick padding were five sterile syringes.

" My superiors forced me to put this into testing, personally I would prefer to do more lab word before giving it out but orders are orders you know" the man joked.

"Yes, well explain what this is so we know what to expect." Jee responded.

"Yes, right, well basically they give you super powers" the scientist replied with not a trace of humor in his voice or face.

Vlack shook his head. " Listen we don't have all day we got people to see, places to be and people to shoot, now unless you wana be one of em you'll tell us"

"Now, now, calm down, threats don't work here my boy" he said with a slight chuckle. "But in all seriousness it does, it works by pumping your body full of some natural chemicals that increase stamina, power and endurance. Basically all we know are its benefits and its toll on the body. This drug will most definitely push you far beyond your normal limit. We suspect some side effect will include: severe mental and physical exhaustion so we suggest say 1 dose every 3 or 4 missions. In addition there would probably some nausea, a weakened immune system and light headedness."

"Wow, that's it? I mean I get those effects from a gunshot, so pain of a gunshot equals super powerful Terminator powers" said Vlack.

"In essence yes, but we are still not sure of the side affects so we suggest using it in only dire situations" the scientist replied.

Present

_..dire situations… this counts as one!_ Rahak grabbed the needle with the drug, tore the protective seal and injected himself. He hissed as it penetrated the skin. He felt an odd feeling course through his arm and spread throughout his whole body. Then everything seemed to stop, he felt nothing, he couldn't feel the earth beneath his feet, or the mild exhaustion in his body, nothing was all he felt.

He could see the fireball leaving the nearest fire benders hand as he was charging at him with the other five right behind. Suddenly he felt an immense amount of pain and his vision began to become distant at the same time the edges of his vision were turning white. His ears started to ring as the whiteness slowly encompassed his vision. Soon all he could hear was a loud ringing, so loud it drowned out his own scream of pain and horror. Then is vision went white pure white, the ringing stopped and he just felt a floating sensation in that white abyss.

* * *

Zuko had been walking in no particular direction for what seemed like days. Of course he knew it was only five or six hours since it was just getting dark. After the fight, Zuko had ripped his cloak into make-shift bandages which he wrapped tightly around his arm, torso and chest to cover his burns and arrow hole. Taking out the arrow was especially hard since it hurt to the point where he wanted to cry as he pulled it out. Even after around five hours he was still in an immense amount of pain. The bandage across his chest and torso were saturated in blood, and he wasn't sure but they were still bleeding through, although it slowed from that river of blood to a small stream. His arm was doing much better, there was no infection and luckily the arrow hadn't gone deep enough to cause too much blood loss. Still, the burns were enough to make him feel light headed and dizzy.

Because of the massive amount of blood Zuko had just lost he was unable to direct himself properly, he just knew if he kept walking he'd find someone who mine help him. He found that the ground proved to be very uneven or maybe it was his vision, he wasn't sure. He pulled his sword out to try and use it as a walking stick but the action threw him off balance and he fell over hitting his head on a sharp rock, which knocked him unconscious. He welcomed the blackness as it gave him relief from the pain and fell into it.

* * *

That one extremely short instance of peace was shattered as he heard his own scream getting louder and louder as the whiteness began to recede and Rahak was able to make out a few faint images namely one of a large red fireball. He snapped out of his confusion and shoved the pain away and tried to dodge it but nothing happened. He tried commanding his body again but it didn't work. He saw his own arm stick out and absorb the hit of the fireball, oddly he felt no pain as he saw his own skin being burned of his arm.

The bender who just shot it stood in awe, as Rahak's facial expression didn't change it just remained in its still non-expressive form. He was so surprised, that blast was a powerful one, it was no distraction shot, the guy's skin was even burned off to the point where he could see Rahaks muscles. The burn should have made him fall over in pain yet he stood there, expressionless.

"Men! Attack now all at once!" He shouted hoping to overwhelm his tolerance.

Rahak wanted to run straight and take out the leader and maybe use his body as cover but yet again his body had a mind of its own. His body moved forward at walking pace, he could see the balls and bursts of fire headed for him and somehow, his body moved with lightning speed and dodged them without stopping his forward walk. He reached closest guard, the one who shot him, in no time.

Rahak couldn't help but feel proud as his 15 year old arm grabbed this 20 something fire bender by the neck and lifted his entire body of the floor. Suddenly Rahak didn't feel so proud as he felt the immense amount of pain from his arm. His muscles cried out in protest, clearly they were not designed for this kind of excursion yet his body trudged on despite the fact he could feel almost feel all the muscles in his arm snapping under the pressure. His body threw him with such force that the bender collided with another one and the two flew almost two meters in the air before hitting the ground hard.

Rahak then walked up the next guard with that same heavy yet slow walk. Another bender shot flames at him then jumped into the air and let loose a volley of fire from the air. Rahaks body, without even doing any bending motion made a wall pop up to protect him and at the same time made a huge spike of earth impale the airborne bender.

The Royal Fire Guard that was the original target stood frozen in his spot. He started in fear as this foe that had now limits for pain and could bend without moving walked toward him. The guard was literally shaking in his boots. The small 15-year-old figure that scared him so raised his hand in a punching motion. The boy turned sideways and punched him in his gut. His eyes widened as he saw the fist pass through his body like it was jelly.

Rahak, in his mind, stood in horror as he saw his own fist plunge through this other mans stomach. His body pulled its blood-covered fist out of the blood squirting body of this individual.

The guard stood for a second staring at the gaping hole in his stomach before fainting.

The last two guards turned tail and ran, but Rahaks body wouldn't allow his targets to escape. Two giant pieces of earth popped out of the ground. Rahaks body punched twice and the two rocks rocketed towards the last two Fire Guards.

One guard turned his head to look behind and saw his fate as the rock hit him hard in the back and shot him toward the complex wall.

Rahaks body didn't stop there, no, the rocks continued to follow the flying bodies until it squished them against the huge metal wall of the structure. The distinct sound of bones being crushed could be heard. Their body parts and organs splattered all over the wall spraying out a huge amount of blood that covered the wall and dripped to the floor. Rahak stood there as his body desperately tried to recover from the overexertion.

After a few minutes his body moved to the door next to the crushed bodies. He ripped it open, pulling it off its hinges. Rahak stepped into a small, almost foyer like room. The room had three exits, one that he just walked in from and two were leading deeper into the complex. The room also, to Rahak's horror, was completely made of steel. Rahak needed to get outside so he still had earth to bend, in here all he had was his gun with five shots.

Almost to confirm his fears, seven soldiers came rushing through the two entrances in front of him. Rahak's initial response was to run outside and get help from his teammates but instead his body took an earth-bending pose. His body then stuck his arms out towards the seven soldiers. The soldiers took a defensive stance waiting in confusion and interest of what will happen. Rahak's muscles tensed and flexed to the point where they were his veins were almost ready to pop out of his skin. Then he felt it. He was able to feel the steel like he felt the earth. His minds eye widened at what was happening. His muscles tensed even further as his body tried to prepare for the attack. They flexed beyond their limit and Rahak could feel his muscles snapping under the strain of trying to control all the metal in the room at once. Then suddenly his body flicked his wrists up and two earth spikes popped out of the ground and impaled two of the soldiers.

The other soldiers jumped in surprise and began attacking him. Rahak made a wall of steel, the action destroying even more muscle cells. He then shoved the wall at them with lighting speed by punching the wall with his left hand. As soon as he did that he was overwhelmed with pain, so much pain that Rahak would prefer to die. His arm was just pain, there was no other sensation coming from it.

The wall knocked out another three soldiers. Rahak then flicked his wrists again and another two spikes impaled another two. Rahak then turned to the last soldier to see a fireball coming right at him. The fireball hit home and burned his already pain consumed left arm. Rahak screamed as he watched his body execute yet another metal bending move and killed him. His body stood panting in the center of the deformed room.

Suddenly whiteness engulfed Rahak, and his body felt like it was on fire again and the pain of all the excursion and the burning sensation was overbearing. Hi s ears started ringing on top of that then suddenly it all stopped, and there was utter blackness as Rahak fainted and fell to the floor. He accepted it with so much happiness and fell into it with utter joy.


	6. Chapter 5: Break in

Zuko awoke slowly. He had just had a dream of when he first got his dagger. The last bits of the dream still lingered in his head. _Never give up without a fight_. He began to recall the events that had just happened. The fight with Commander Zein, the escape from the palace and, of course, redirecting Ozai's lightning. With those memories he also remembered the arrow would, the huge burn on his stomach and the even bigger one across his back, which he was now lying on. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes.

He was met by more darkness, once his eyes focused he was able to make out the silhouette of tree's and bushes. Beyond them he could see the stars and the light from the moon. It was night. Panic started to run through Zuko's mind. How much time had passed, how far had the avatar gotten, was Azula and his father after him and what happened to Zein? All these questions ran through his mind. He realized he needed to get moving, first to put some distance between Zein or Azula, who ever was chasing him, and second to get to the avatar.

The wanted prince got up more quickly than he wanted to and felt an immense amount of pain. The burn on his back was infected, and the infected skin had grown on his back and the grass on the floor, so when he got up his skin was ripped of. At this he let out a hiss and leaned on the arm with the arrow hole for support, that caused him even more pain causing his arm to collapse then his upper body fell face flat on the floor causing his frontal burn to hurt. He let out a long series of words that are not supposed to be said by the higher class.

Zuko then got up, much slower this time. He saw his swords scattered, he slowly walked to them and picked them up. He put the two halves together and leaned on them since it hurt to stand up straight. He then looked up at the sky and found the North Star, from there he mapped out which way was West and began walking that way. The faster he got to a neutral town or the avatar, the better.

Zuko continued to trudge on for what seemed like hours. The pain from the wounds was overwhelming but he was Zuko, son of the loving Ursa and ruthless Father, pupil of the Dragon of the West and great grandson of the great Avatar Roku. With that in mind he would not let pain hold him down. So he looked up to make sure of his direction, narrowed his eyes and took his next step, followed by the next and so on moving purely on determination.

* * *

"Rahak! Rahak! Wake up man, dude now is not the time for a snooze. Jee he aint waking up"

Rahak was hearing someone's voice. It was familiar but he couldn't quite place it. He slowly regained consciousness and feeling, and the only feeling he felt was pure and utter pain. His muscles felt completely numb the burns on his chest and arm where overwhelmingly painful.

"Can't you heal him?"

"No, I used most of my ammo during the fight, I'm almost out of ice, and I can't use what I have left on him"

Rahak opened his eyes and was met with the concerned face of a healer. He got up slowly. He had learned from experience that getting up quickly after being unconscious could hurt a lot. He was right, his burns hurt immensely despite the fact he was getting up slowly. The healer leaned him against the wall and gave him his canteen. Rahak took it and drank it but he didn't get water.

He immediately spat it out. " Wha- what was that?"

"Don't you remember yesterday, we snuck vodka into the camp" Ton Lei smirked. "Sorry Major"

"Don't worry about, I did that a lot when I was a private" the major smirked. "And I still do" he added.

"Well its good for you, it will take your mind of the pain," the healer said.

Rahak nodded and gulped down a bunch. _God, I drank this yesterday? Yuck!_ He coughed some more, but true enough, he did feel better. He still didn't feel good enough to run into another battle.

"You think you can complete this mission?" the Major said. "You did good, you basically cleared everything, almost all the defenses are gone"

_What do you think?! Of course I can't, I got two huge burns across my chest and arm and all my muscles are dead!_ He thought, but then, he was Rahak and he wasn't going down that easily. After three years of trying to prove himself, trying to be the best, he was going to man this one out, after all. Children don't join the army, men do, and at age 12 he became a man. "Yea, I can do it" he lied.

"Alright, Ton Lei take the front, you know where to go. Vlack, watch 3 and I got 9. Everyone else go with Ton Lei and take the front, Rahak you stay at the rear with the healer and cover our backs" the major had ordered

"Got it" Rahak said. He took another two more gulps to ease the pain a bit more and got up. He suppressed a hiss as he got up. He grabbed his rifle and jogged after the group.

They moved quickly down the concrete hallways after leaving the metal foyer like entrance. They had taken the left side entrance but it turned out the interior of the complex had one main hallway that was hexagonal in shape. Most of the smaller hallways lead to the exterior rooms of the complex. They were told the machine was big so it was probably in the interior. After a bit of jogging, Rahak caught sight of a hallway leading to the interior. He turned down it as the rest of the group kept jogging.

"Hey hold up for a sec" he said. What he saw he didn't like. The hallway led to a small glass window. He looked into it and saw that he was at the top of a long hexagonal prism shaped room. At the bottom there was a smaller hexagon half wall and in the center a pedestal. On the edges of the wall there were computers consoles lining the entire perimeter. Men in white lab coats rushed from screen to screen. Then he heard a humming noise that started to get louder. He saw more scientists scrambling around. Near one end there was a General with two Royal Fire Guards covering his flank. Beside them, of to a side almost, was a hooded figure. He had a long red robe on covering his most of his face and his arms. The cloak also probably covered any weapons he had under them.

"Guy's what ever this is, its gona turn on pretty soon, the exit is below us we need a stair case" Rahak had said.

"Alright everyone fan out, stay in radio range, and find a staircase. Rahak you're with me" Jee replied.

"No need its right over there" Ton Lei pointed out two a sign that said 'Fire exit'. It had a picture of a man running down the stairs.

"Wait so they have an elevator?" Vlack asked.

The Major simply sighed and moved in the direction of the sign. Rahak followed him and the group fell into their normal positions with Major Jee in front followed by Ton Lei and the healer with Rahak and Vlack at the rear for sniper support. They continued to follow the main hexagonal hallway until they got to the stairs. They ran down quickly. Once at the bottom the humming of the machines were much louder and it was easy to tell that they were getting louder. Indicating that something is going to turn on. Rahak was tiring fast and the pain kept coming back. Every time it became unbearable he would take a gulp from his canteen. Unfortunately his small form can't take much alcohol and he was starting to feel the effects of excessive drinking. This, he realized was not good, so he stopped, hoping against hope that the lightheaded dizzy feeling he was getting would go away.

The bottom floor was no different from the upper floor. It was the same, hexagonal main hallway with other hallways branching outward. They eventually reached a large metal double door that was locked shut. The hinges were on the inside so they couldn't unscrew it easily and the lock was embedded into the door.

"Ok." The major whispered. "Vlack, you got the charges?" Vlack nodded. "Ok take em out place em here, here and here. Then put the last two here and here," Jee had said as he indicated the top and bottom corners and one in the middle.

"Wait, Rahak cant you metal bend like you did back there?" asked Ton Lei.

"Naw man, I don't think so, I'm really weak right now and that was the first time I did it. Plus the only way I did it was probably because of the drug" replied Rahak.

"Keep it down, but Rahak don't stress yourself more than you already have, we need you as sniper cover" the Major had whispered.

"Done" Vlack affirmed as he put the last charge on the C-4 and attached it to the bottom left of the door.

"Ok everyone get out your smokes, I got the flash on my first signal pull the pins, on my second-" he looked at Vlack. "Blow the charges, once the door is down throw your grenades in and run in as fast as you can, try and go for the middle half wall but stay near the door should we need to run out"

The group nodded and moved away from the door. Some of the team moved to the left while others moved with Jee to the right. Everyone reloaded their weapons and checked them one last time to make sure the weapons don't jam when firing. Soon all eyes fell on the Major. Jee looked at his team one by one, then looked straight at the door, he nodded. Everyone simultaneously all pulled the pins out of their respective grenades. Jee nodded again but this time at Vlack. Vlack nodded in understanding and pulled out his controller. He flipped the cover open to reveal a small red switch that he pressed. All the charges blew resulting in a huge bang that reverberated through the concrete walls. The explosion also blew up some of the doorframe and released a large amount of concrete dust into the air that blocked everyone's view of the door.

"GO THROW THEM AT THE DOOR THROUGH THE SMOKE!" Major Jee shouted as he threw his own.

No one could see past that wall of smoke, the door disappeared behind the smoke after the explosion and no one knew if the grenades would bounce back since they couldn't see. But none the less they obeyed their commanding officer and threw their grenades in and ran through the smoke into the room. None knew what to expect.

He didn't know if the enemy had time to prepare, or if any more soldiers had been added and the machine that was turning on, what if it was a bomb that could be set off. So many questions went through Rahak's head as he ran into the smoke both hands tightly clenching his single-shot bolt action rifle.

* * *

Aang's burst open his eyes and looked around his room franticly. He was covered in cold sweat and was panting, his chest and arm hurt a lot and he felt slightly dizzy. He was expecting to see soldiers through the smoke, then realized it was a dream. He was still in the western air temple. He then remembered the last parts of his dream. _Welcome the strangers._ The voice that told him that when he ran through the smoke was Roku's. Aang simply sat on his bead as he tried to calm himself and go through the dream but found he couldn't. Instead he fell right back to sleep.


	7. Chapter 6: The Machine

Author's Note: DUDE SERIOUSLY if you have any critisism or advice, or even if you like it/dislike it please review and tell me, this none reviewing is starting to piss me off... O BTW thanks to Aniasin for reviews - confusing part in Chapter 5- Aang wakes up to having a dream where he expierenced the Break-in sorry i was a bit unclear:P

* * *

As soon as he cleared the smoke and came out on the other side, it was pure and absolute chaos. The scientist were scurrying around, some were running for the lives, others clung to there work as if their life depended on it. Those that stayed were hunched over their computers trying to complete what ever it was they were doing. The room seemed to be divided through the middle, on one side was only the Black Lotus's, the other was randomly scattered scientists and a few soldiers hiding behind boxes and the half wall in the middle. There was constant fire going on.

Rahak came out of his stupor and ducked behind the hexagonal half wall as a bullet passed overhead. He glanced around their half of the room and saw Vlack behind some boxes, Ton Lei was near him behind the half wall, the healer was running towards a computer console for cover and the Major was trying to make his way to their side. Upon seeing this he shouted at Ton Lei.

"Hey Enemies at 12 Major's at 2, cover him!" He shouted over the loud gun shots.

"Ok, but I'm going after the Fire Guards, get Vlack on the Major, you cover me!" he shouted back. "I'll act as a diversion for the Major!"

"Vlack Major at 2, cover him!" he shouted as loud as he can at the stack of boxes where he assumed Vlack to be. After a few seconds he saw a 'thumbs up' from the side of the box, then a rifle slowly came through a hole in the stacked boxes and shot at something behind Rahak. He then turned and nodded at Ton Lei.

Ton Lei stayed crouched so his body was hidden behind the half wall and began moving around it. Rahak was able to map out his route and noticed a few soldiers in his path. He ducked down and prepared his gun. He then stuck his head up, brought his gun up to his cheek and shot two shots taking out the two guards. Almost immediately as if on cue Ton Lei jumped up and started to fight one of the Fire Guards. Rahak then remembered to keep an eye out for any one trying to take out Ton Lei and he was right. He saw a soldier aiming at his fellow team-mate. In response Rahak quickly brought his rifle up and planted a rock bullet in the man's arm then another in his chest.

He brought his attention back to Ton Lei, he was loosing his fight against the fire bender. He then looked at Vlack who had his hands full as he fought of another two soldiers. The healer was pinned down behind a few boxes and the Major was nowhere in sight. Rahak gulped down some vodka and jumped over the half wall and ran at another soldier when suddenly it died.

Major Jee had circled around and had started taking out soldiers and fire benders with ease now that they were completely exposed.

"You, launch the machine! Everyone else fall back we are loosing this fight!"

Rahak turned to the voice and saw a Fire Republic general standing there admits the fighting with that odd hooded figure there. The general turned to the figure and nodded. The hooded figure ran forward, his cloak trailing behind him exposing heavy looking Kevlar vest lined with ammo packs, grenades and medical supplies all strapped to it. In his hands he held two very shiny and very big pistols. The man jumped and twirled in the air and fired two shots. One hit Ton Lei, the shot exploded on contact and blew off a sizable chunk of his arm. The other hit the healer in the leg again blowing of a large chunk of flesh. Rahak's anger flared at the loss of his teammates and he ran at the man ignoring all fatigue and pain purely driven by revenge. Yet another one he knew was killed. He ran at him, rather than shooting him he shoved the butt of his gun into the man's stomach. The hooded figure doubled over and held his stomach. Rahak brought his gun up and forcibly brought the gun down on his neck smacking him to the ground.

The scientist nodded. He popped open a cover to reveal a big red button. He slammed his fist into it and ran at full sprint out of the room. Everyone seemed to evacuate the room as the humming of the machines started to increase in intensity and frequency. It started to get louder and louder. It was so loud that Rahak could feel the vibrations in his chest. He saw the general making a run for the door. A few soldiers stood anxiously at the door guarding it.

The Major and Ton Lei were about to give chase when lightning appeared out of nowhere. Sparks of lightning began appearing at random as the machines began to scream.

"GUYS FALL BACK MOVE BACK TO OUR DOOR MOVE MOVE MOVE!" Jee shouted over the intense noise of the machines and explosions from the lightning.

Rahak moved back to the door than almost suddenly lightning shot from all 12 corners of the room (top and bottom) and converged at the centre of the room in the middle of the area created by the hexagon half wall. At the centre of the convergence there was a large ball of lightning that was enlarging in size. It formed into a large circular half sphere of electricity. The flat half was covered in shimmering water like substance.

"GO!" the general had screamed and the man in the cloak ran forward and jumped through. At the same time the General high tailed it out of the complex. As soon as the cloaked man jumped through and his body disappeared into it the loud screaming of the machines and lightning ceased and everything stopped. The lightning disappeared along with the man and everything was quiet except for the footsteps of the General running down a hallway.

* * *

It had been almost one hour since the crazy fiasco. Everything was calm but not complete. The healer had used all his water and energy to heal Ton Lei, unfortunately he didn't have enough for himself. Major Jee had told him to look at the machines and figure out what happened, since he was allowed to school and attend duty at the same time. He had taken History and Physics. Everyone ridiculed him for it because they didn't match, but he didn't care, he was hoping to die in war.

"I think I figured out what this thing is" Rahak had said. "If I'm right and my calculations are correct and all these assumptions that these stupid scientists put are right this is a somewhat of a time machine"

"What the fuck? So your telling me that the Fire Republic put millions of dollars into a time machine in order to win a war" Ton Lei replied sarcastically. "Seriously dude did you even pass school?"

"Yea man, what could they possibly want from time travel?" inquired Vlack.

"Project: eliminate Prince Zuko" read Rahak. "It's the mission report, and that was the objective"

"Prince who?" asked Jee.

"You know, dude, ok about four hundred years ago this war was still going on, and the Fire Republic, or Nation as it was known before was winning. A major turning point is when the Prince Zuko, who by the way developed stealth fighting, defected from the Fire Nation and helped the Avatar of that time. Yes before you ask this was before Avatar Jalian was killed in the Avatar state. They defeated the Fire lord and Zuko ascended the throne. Princess Azula tried to assassinate him and a civil war broke out, the defeated Fire Lord's followers helped the Princess to defeat Zuko. Then the war started again, Zuko gave the world 50 years to rebuild and because of that we were able to fight back and survive to create our capital in the previous Southern water tribe. If they kill Zuko before he gets the throne we are screwed we all cease to exist and the world we know it will be ruled by the Fire Republic!" Rahak finished by taking a deep breath and panting a little bit.

"Wow, that's a lot to take in" said Ton Lei. "So let me get this straight, Fire Republic sends guy back in time to kill some prince, if prince dies we die"

"Yea that's it in a nutshell" Rahak put the papers down and stood up then turned to Major Jee. "Now what, we blow it or we use it?"

The Major stood pondering over what had been said. He realized there was a 50/50 chance this works and they Republic succeeds. He could go after him and try and stop the man who jumped through. But, what if it doesn't work, what if they die as soon as they jump in. He was so lost in thought he didn't hear the distinct sound of helicopters outside.

"Sir, your decision? They are going to counter attack soon, the heli's are outside"

"Rahak can you get this running again?" he asked.

"Yea I'm pretty sure but who-" Rahak was cut off by Jee's quick response.

"Good, ok everyone I need you to cover Rahak, Ton Lei, Vlack take the left door. Izod and I will take the right one. Rahak, your going through, we'll cover you as long as we can"

"What why me?!" he asked in disbelief.

"Because you know the most about History and" Jee paused. "You deserve a new start"

Rahak nodded and reluctantly turned to get to work.

* * *

"Sir, we got a lot of company, I don't think we can take much more" Vlack said as he shot someone down the hallway he was guarding.

"Yea I know we are taking heavy fire two" Jee had said as he shot a fireball down his hallway. "Rahak, you done?"

"Almost… there I'm done, start it?" Rahak asked anxiously to Jee.

"Yes do it now and hurry" he replied.

Rahak slammed the big red button again, and the machine started humming like last time. "What about you guys?" he shouted over the machines.

"Sewers" Ton Lei replied calmly as he pointed two a drainage pipe in one of the corners of the room near a computer console. "Besides, we need to make sure we blow this place, Izod already deleted all the information from their hard drives so once we are clear we are blowing this place up. Make sure you succeed cause no one else is going back!"

"Got it" Rahak said as he flicked all the switches on and pushed the machine's power usage to maximum.

Once again sparks of lightning began to fly until they once again struck the centre of the room from each of their respective corners of the twelve cornered room.

The team ran to the centre where the half sphere of pure energy was after throwing a few grenades down their hallways.

"Rahak, you have new mission objectives. One, protect the Avatar and Prince Zuko, Two kill the assassin, and three. Kill Azula" Major Jee said somberly. "And most important, don't forget your real team, the black lotus's"

"Black Lotus's. Forever!" the group chorused.

"Now go Rahak, Go!" he shouted as a few soldiers started to run in.

Ton Lei gave him his custom pistol, and said "Dude, you weren't a very talkative friend but seriously, it was nice knowing you"

"Thanks" was all Rahak could muster. The group turned and moved toward the drain pipe.

Jee turned "Good luck and God speed"

Rahak nodded and jumped into the flat side of the half sphere and hoped being dematerialized wouldn't hurt.

Author's Note: OK you read it now CLICK ON GO REVIEW plz and review lol i'd really appreciate it


	8. Chapter 7: Arrival

Authors Note: Sorry, long chapter and I eased up on the crazy fighting stuff its more 'filler' or character stuff.

* * *

Zuko was so dizzy and tired he felt like dying to end the agony. Each step felt like life times worth of effort and pain on top of that he was so hungry he could eat a moose-lion. He could faintly make out the purple haze that was now at the horizon indicating he had walked the whole night. Zuko barely registered this out of his fatigue. He kept walking none the less.

Eventually he came to a clearing; at the end of it was a huge gap, one that he could not jump even at full strength. _Agni I wish I had my balloon_. He sighed out of frustration. He was now angry that he walked all that way in so much pain to get stopped by something as stupid as a canyon. _Wow the gods hate me _he thought. He then fell over out of sheer exhaustion and lay there for a few minutes. It felt nice to lie down, all his muscles screamed in joy as they all just stopped working. It was such relief that it gave him a slightly clearer mind. This allowed curiosity to enter. He wanted to see what was at the bottom of that canyon, how deep it was how large it was for he couldn't quite place it but this area looked oddly familiar. He then began pushing himself to the edge. He was still too lazy to get up and walk. He pushed and pushed until his head over hanged the edge of the cliff. His eyes widened at what he just saw and he whispered to himself

"The Western Air Temple"

He pushed himself a bit more over the edge and scanned the upside down temple for any remains of someone being there. He moved from each plat form to the next until he saw it, a recently used fire pit near some sort of fountain. The wood in the pit was still glowing meaning the fire had gone out a little while ago. This meant there must be people around who had food. He had no idea how there could be a fountain but mere thought of water made him squirm. Zuko was so thirsty he could drink liters upon liters of it. With the determination for water he got up and looked for some vine, something strong to climb down into the temple that was built upside down under the cliff.

While looking he kept dreaming of what kind of food they would eat. His mind went back to the palace. O how he wished he could go back and have some nice Fire Nation delicacies. He never really liked upper class food, but right now he was so hungry that the thought made his mouth water. He started to dream, while testing a vine. _Fire flakes, roast duck, dumplings, dumplings with roast duck and fire flakes on the side_. His stomach rumbled violently and water began flooding his mouth. _Then for dessert I'll have fruit tarts with fresh-. _His thoughts stopped there and drifted to Mai. That was what Mai always asked him for. Fruit tarts. He sighed, he wished he was with Mai, he missed her a lot. He wanted to go back to the palace and lay on that couch with Mai. Maybe eat a few fruit tarts. He just wanted to be with her, to feel her presence, to touch her hair. _Agni I wish Mai was here_. He began to wonder if she was even thinking of him. Did she hate him? He did leave her with only a letter or maybe she still liked him. They still hadn't told each other how they felt. They had only been dating for a few weeks. Maybe Mai never felt anything much about him. What if she only liked him because he was the Prince? He sighed and pulled the vine into a tight knot. He tested it with his weight. His shoulders slouched at the thought of Mai and he slowly began climbing down the rope. It was as if all the energy he had just moments ago was lost. All the pain, hunger and thirst came rushing back as he drifted into regretful thoughts of Mai.

* * *

Unfortunately Mai didn't have time to think of Zuko. Azula had made sure her hands were full. She was so tired for she had been working the whole of yesterday with the invasion and throughout the night without a break. She couldn't ask for one because before she could even talk Azula would send her on a new task so now she simply gave up and hoped Azula would cut her some slack. She was already jogging down a palace hallway to the hanger in maker sure everyone was getting ready to embark. Apparently they were going on a mission to Earth Kingdom territory, probably to secure Ba Sing Se or to capture the Avatar. As soon as she finished she was supposed to go and train with Ty Lee and some soldiers. They _needed to be at their best_ Azula had said.

She stopped at a window while jogging and decided she needed a break, at least a five-minute one. Mai did her signature sigh and leaned on the window. She supported hear head with her hands, elbows on the windowsill. Her mind automatically drifted to the letter Zuko had written. _For your own safety_ was his excuse. What a lame excuse, he leaves for her safety. If he really wanted to leave he could have just said so Then she thought, what if Zuko was actually doing the right thing, what if this was bigger than him and her. She sighed yet again, if it was then she hated fate on top of everything else she hated, one of those things was the color pink.

As if on cue Ty Lee came bouncing in covered in her usual pink attire. "Watcha thinking about? Azula will get mad if she sees you day dreaming"

"I'm not day dreaming" she said in her monotonous voice.

"Is it Zuko?" she teased.

A small frown crossed Mai's face. A normal person wouldn't have caught it but Ty Lee did. Mai turned back to look out the window again.

Ty Lee walked up closer to Mai and placed her hand companionably on her shoulder and said in a tone that betrayed her pink " I'm sorry, I saw the letter and Azula doesn't know. I won't tell I'm on his side on this"

Her tone was so serious that Mai spun around to look at her but she was already bouncing down the hallway happily. Mai stared after her in disbelief. _What did she mean by 'I'm on his side'? Who is he?_

"Lady Mai" Mai spun around to face a soldier, she was surprised that she had snuck up on her but, of course, none of it showed. "Princess Azula wants to see you"

"What ever" she sighed and walked of towards Azula's study.

* * *

Aang's eyes slowly opened. The felt so heavy to open so he kept them closed. After a few minutes he felt wrestles and couldn't sleep. He tried opening his eyes again but they still felt extremely heavy. He sighed and forced them opened then got into an upright position. He was in his room at the Western Air Temple. He sat hunched over with one hand on his knee supporting his head, and the other hand rubbing his eye. The memory of last night shot through his head. He remembered waking up from a weird dream before falling asleep. It was so weird, but felt so real. He couldn't remember the details but he remembered there were fire benders and he was attacking them. He decided it wasn't important and pushed it aside to only be replaced by something he'd rather not think about right now, the war. He was so angry with himself, he couldn't even get the Fire Lords daughter to fight him, and she was evading him without even breaking a sweat. If she was that good imagine how good the Fire Lord is without an eclipse. At least during the eclipse he had a slight advantage, the Fire Lord couldn't bend but now, he could and Aang still didn't have a teacher. On top of that he was running out of time for summer was soon coming to an end in around 4 weeks or less. He wanted to talk to someone, someone like Katara. No, not to Katara, but someone like her, this was because after that kiss, everything has been messed up. Why did he kiss her? Now it felt so awkward to talk to her, there was so much tension. Aang knew it wasn't only him, Katara felt it too because they would both come up with the stupidest lies to get out of a conversation. Every time they talked it would be, I have to go practice earth bending, or air bending even though he just came back from practice. Katara would use something like, I have to go cook, or clean, or mend cloths, even though she just started taking a break.

Aang sighed yet again and walked outside. It was still dark out but he could make out a purple haze at the end of the canyon, which meant morning was fast approaching. He crouched down at the edge of the floor overlooking the canyon. His mind drifted back to Katara. How could he be so stupid? He really screwed things up with her. He wished he could take back that stupid idea of kissing her. He almost wished he fought Ozai and died.

After a while, of sitting and brooding he moved to the fountain where he washed his face to wake himself up. His mind was still on Katara and he couldn't seem to get it off of her. He kept scolding himself for kissing her. He had screwed things up again, first in Ba Sing Se, then at the eclipse and now with Katara. He sighed and went back to his position at the edge of the platform.

Suddenly he heard something a bit ways off. It sounded like the rustling of cloths. He got up, senses fully alert. He tried to use earth bending to sense anything, but he couldn't' make out any unfamiliar people. He only sensed people in their rooms. He decided sight was the best since he wasn't sure if his ability to 'see' with earth bending was good enough. He began walking towards the sound but keeping to the shadows. His ears were alert; he could hear the wind, the rustle of the some leaves and the scattering of small rocks in the wind. He walked on in complete silence until he stopped abruptly at the sound of a grunt. Then he suddenly heard a thump as someone fell to the floor; he felt a weight fall to the floor to his left, more towards the edge of the temple. Right after the thump the person hissed. Aang cautiously move toward it, he maintained an air-bending stance as he moved. He also used air bending to keep him light on his feet. He tried to move as stealthily as possible.

He approached the person, but remained behind a pillar supporting the temple floor/roof (depends how you look at it). Aang could barely make out his features. The light from that purple haze and the moon didn't give enough visibility to see his features; on top of that his face seemed to be very dirty. The person seemed to be badly injured for a red liquid was seeping out from his shirt His clothing was dark red in color and he had a sword strapped to his back. He was sitting clutching his stomach. Aang assumed he was injured there but he also saw that his arm had stained blood on it too. Realizing this person was hurt Aang decided to go and help him.

Zuko had lost his grip on the vine, slipped and fell. He didn't fall on his stomach but his the muscles hurt from the impact and luckily the fall wasn't to steep.

"Hey are you ok?" someone asked from beside him.

Zuko spun his head around abruptly to lay eyes on the boy. He realized whom he was staring at. Even in the dim light that bright blue arrow still stood out and he didn't need to be told twice who it was.

"Avatar. I've been looking for you."

Aang's eyes widened when the person turned his head. The scar was a dead give away and on top of that the whole _I'm looking for the Avatar_ thing really added to it. He stared at the injured Prince for what seemed like eternity. He didn't know what to do. Should he help him? Leave him, or get his friends and start a fight.

Zuko stared at the avatar. He got up and stood still clenching his stomach.

Aang jumped a step back and got into an air-bending stance. He looked menacing to Aang, like the living dead type of menacing. In the dim light his scar looked more prominent along with the engraved gold trimmed sword along with the huge burn across- _wait huge burn?! How did he get a burn_?

"Um, Hi" Zuko said lamely. He was trying to suppress some of the pain but found it was easier than he thought. After walking through the night he was becoming numb to the pain.

Aang remained guarded but his hands lowered slightly.

"Yea, you must be kinda surprised that I'm here but I'm pretty sure you don't have a fire bending teacher and I know fire bending… you probably already know that… from you know… but yea I'm good now and I gave up my birth right because I realize what I was doing was wrong. I also know that my father has been steering our nation in the wrong path and… I freed your bison back in Ba Sing Se. So yea, and I even-" he was interrupted by the pain in his stomach, arms and back.

Aang didn't even respond he was too shocked to say anything. They simply stood there. Aang staring in disbelief and Zuko staring in anticipation. A few seconds later her felt himself loosing control. He could feel the avatar state coming on like it had when ever he got angry, he didn't know why, he wasn't angry but before he knew it he was outside of his body watching it release a great amount of bright white light.

* * *

Rahak was screaming in his mind. The pain was unbearable, it was a different kind of pain. It wasn't a stab pain, a bullet wound, or even a sickly type of pain. It was so different, his body felt like its energy was literally being sucked out from it yet at the same time it felt like his limbs were being torn apart. When he opened his eyes he looked down and it turned out his limbs were being torn apart, they were just evaporating away.

He looked around and it seemed he was in a tunnel that was being continuously stretched. The lining of the tunnel had many bright lights and images that seemed to stretch from the end of the tunnel to the other end. It felt like he was moving through the tunnel very fast and everything was simply blurring.

It was like he felt every painful sensation yet it didn't look like it was happening. His legs felt like they were being stabbed but they were already evaporating away. He felt like he was sweating, but at the same time he didn't see any sweat. He decided not to think about it and hope it ended soon, for he couldn't take much more of this.

* * *

Katara had awoken to the distinct sound of lightning. That sound had forever scarred her when it hit Aang and she would never forget that sound. When she got up she could see sparks randomly flying through her window off to edge of the platform they were on. She went to wake up Sokka, but he already had his sword out, and Toph was already running out. Haru, and Teo were already running to the main fountain were they normally stayed.

The entire group ran to the source of the lightning, when they got there they were all surprised to see Aang in the avatar state floating above a blood covered Zuko standing looking fearfully at the lightning spewing out from him. Then all the random lightning stopped for a split second. Everything went silent except for the panting of the group and the grunt from Zuko. An extremely loud thunderous clap broke the beautiful yet short silence as the glowing avatar emitted 12 continuous strands of lightning outward. The lightning strands stopped at a certain length that seemed to outline a hexagonal prism. At the center of it was a glowing Aang who seemed to be screaming in agony. The light intensified and electricity seemed to form a bright ball around Aang. Then out of nowhere a body was shot out of the ball towards a pillar.

Almost simultaneously the lightning stopped, the light disappeared, and Aang came out of the Avatar State and fell to the floor as the body that was shot out was plunged into the floor by the sheer velocity he came out of the ball. The body created a large crater and took down one of the supporting pillars in the process. Then silence.

Authors note: REVIEW PLZ! thanks


	9. Chapter 8: Hi Zuko here

Author's note: Sorry for the wait but SOZINS COMET. Sorry i had to watch that atleast twice. And, i had this done but it was 3500 when i fiinished so i split it into two chapters so its kinda short:P sorry. Yea so these two chapters are kinda soft.. more filler you know group bonding :P

* * *

The first thing Rahak saw that actually registered was a whitish tinged earth which he promptly slammed into. He felt the speed at which he flew into it. He was going really fast, a speed he wished he would never have to experience unless in a vehicle. He continued to plough through the earth for what seemed like too long. As soon as he got used to the feeling of earth constantly bombarding him he bounced into the air. He looked up briefly and all he saw was a large dusty white rock pillar. His eyes widened but he was to weak to earth bend it or even scream in terror so he simply ploughed rite through that and skidded to a halt a few meters away.

Rahak just lay there enjoying the silence and the lack of speed or movement. It was so nice to just stop after being flung through that weird tunnel then being shoved into the ground at high speed.

* * *

Katara snapped out of her daze and ran to Aang, she didn't register anything else other than Aang's limp body falling to the floor. It brought back horrible memories of what happened in the catacombs. It looked almost exactly the same, it was dark here too and his body was glowing just like before, lightning was all around him just like it was when Azula struck him and he fell the same way, limp and lifeless and unconscious. She didn't register Zuko's bleeding dumbfounded presence nor did she notice the body that was flung out of Aang's glowing sphere of power. She didn't notice how the energy had suddenly been sucked from her as the body came out. The only thing she knew was Aang was hurt and unconscious and he needed her, and, she needed him. She crouched down next to his still body and checked for injury. She found none so she simply held him tight hoping to drown out the memory of Ba Sing Se.

Toph, Teo, The Duke, and Haru were at a complete loss and looked to Sokka, there was no remark, no offer of advice because there was none for such a random unprovoked unexpected situation.

Sokka simply stared at the cloud of dust that contained the body that was flung out. He then looked at Zuko's bloody form an then at Aang being cradled in his sister's arms. He didn't know what situation to address first. Why was Zuko covered in blood? Why was Aang in the Avatar state? And Why on earth did a body fly out of Aang? Ok, obviously couldn't talk to the body in the smoke, nor could he ask Aang, so Zuko it was.

"Toph make sure he doesn't lie" he whispered aside to Toph. She nodded dumbly in response. Never had he seen her so caught of guard and it was almost funny to see her like that. He walked over to Zuko with so many question running through his head.

"Zuko? What are you doing here? No that's pretty obvious" he said and pulled out his sword hoping Zuko would give some answers.

Zuko stared at him. Well he couldn't give his original speech now and well, he hadn't planned on meeting the Avatar's group like this. Meeting them unexpectedly he could handle but what just happened completely threw him overboard.

"Wait, look I don't know what happened to the Avatar. I just came here looking for some water and a place to stay, I did not expect to find the Avatar here. I wasn't even looking for him at that moment!" he said.

"Truth" Toph popped in.

"Wait, you said at the moment, so you were planning on capturing him"

Zuko sighed. He was too weak, tired and out of energy for this. "Look I wanted to join your group. I realized that what I had done was wrong and that my destiny never lied by my fathers side."

At this Katara came out of her daze and looked at Zuko. "YOU!" she shouted. As soon as she realized he was there all her anger came rushing up and she fell into a water-bending stance as soon as she carefully put Aang down. She held so much anger and drew a huge wave of water and shot it at him.

_Stupid stupid stupid!_ This was a horrible idea, he should have high tailed it out of there before Katara even noticed him. He saw the huge wave of water heading straight for him. He grunted out of pain and jumped out of the way.

Katara didn't let up, she used the remains of the missed wave and froze it completely. When Zuko landed he slipped and lost his balance. He caught him self and in the process he arrow wound opened up again and blood started pouring out. He stopped him self and held his arms up in surrender. "Wait hold on! Give me a second I'm not here to hurt you!" he shouted.

"CAN IT LIAR!" she hollered. She then summoned two water whips, froze the ends and began relentlessly attacking Zuko.

Zuko was barely able to dodge them; he didn't want to use fire since he wanted to remain passive. Those two tips of ice were getting really close and he couldn't dodge for ever. In his weakened state he was feeling very sloppy and he was tiring extremely fast. He would soon collapse out of sheer blood loss.

Katara's next strike did it. Zuko did get too sloppy and he couldn't dodge one of her attacks. It hit home and stabbed him deep in his leg. Katara smiled devilishly at this and prepared to strike with the other tentacle while one was still imbedded in his leg.

Sokka had been watching the fight and noticed that Zuko had a huge burn on his lower stomach area._ Why would he have a burn?_ He also noticed that Zuko still didn't fire bend. He could have easily melted the ice tipped water whip and freed himself, but he didn't. He just stood there, accepting his injuries as if he deserved them. Maybe his story wasn't so far off. He looked at Katara who was smiling evilly. Sokka was stunned, he had only seen that devilish smile on Azula and seeing it on his sisters face made him shutter.

Katara was just about to do the last movement to shoot the whip at Zuko but Sokka grabbed her arm and stopped her.

Zuko stared wide-eyed at the ice tip floating a few centimeters away from his chest. Then it simply fell to the ground with a splash. He looked at his leg, and the ice whip that was in it was gone, only leaving piece of flesh missing.

Sokka feared his sister now. Never, had she ever been so angry an anyone before, never enough to cause such a painful injury.

Katara stood, breathing heavily. "Why, why did you stop me! We could end him right now and never have to deal with him!" she shouted.

"Zuko didn't do anything this time and we need to find out what happened sis"

"NO, he's just going to lie!" she screamed. "Just like he did last time," she added in a whisper.

Sokka realized there was more to this than he thought. _Great another problem, first Aang, then Zuko, then that …guy?, and now Katara._ "Look, Aang probably needs healing, why don't you take him to his room and try and help him out" he said calmly. He needed to regain control of this situation. _God, it's way to early for this. _Once Katara left he turned back to Zuko who looked like he was in a lot of pain. He had his swords out, but he was leaning on them desperately trying to remain standing. _Why doesn't he just sit down_ He looked really pale and weak. He was trembling under the pain of his injuries, Sokka assumed. He decided to make this quick since it looked like the prince would die at any moment.

"Look Zuko, you have to understand how hard it is for us to really believe you. It's kind of hard to believe that you just suddenly changed over night." He said

"I know. Look let me just use the fountain and I'll stay away from your group until you guys sort everything out" Zuko knew he wouldn't gain their trust right away, and this situation didn't help. The only person who might support him would be Avatar, and maybe the bison. He would have stayed and tried to convince the water warrior but honestly he was just too tired and weak. He could barely remain standing.

"Fine. Haru, Duke keep an eye on him" he said.

"It's THE duke, THE duke, come on its not that hard" The Duke said angrily. _Why is it so hard for people to understand it's such a simple concept! _He thought. With that the three walked off to the fountain.

Authors note: HEY YOU ...yea you i'm talkin to you... the person who just read ma story i know you read it and i know you got some critisim in you NOW REVIEW!


	10. Chapter 9 Friend or Foe

Authors note: Sorry but there has to be some type of intro to group and Rahak. I'm also noticing you guyz are skipping to the last chapter... i just posted two at the same time, so read the one b4 this (its different from WAT) lol

* * *

Rahak finally opened his eyes after resting on the floor for a few minutes. He heard the some people shouting and talking but most of the words were drowned out to him. Right now all he could feel was pure pain. His body was in so much pain, it felt like he pulled a muscle, only that he pulled every possible muscle in his body. He sucked up the pain and got up. The pain overwhelmed him and he gasped in pain, in the process he sucked in a bunch of dust and coughed.

"Fuck" he sighed. "Diam that hur-urt so much" he whimpered. "Ton Lei, dude, where am I?" he asked then realized he was supposed to have traveled through time. All the things that happened to him in the past two hours came rushing back and he remembered where he should be. But was he really there?

Sokka turned abruptly to the sound of a cough and a voice coming from the cloud of dust. He immediately drew his sword. He didn't know what it was but if it was a threat he could deal with it.

Toph also followed suit and fell into an earth-bending stance.

Rahak swayed in spot, his body was so tired and he felt slightly dizzy and this dust cloud wasn't helping so he sought to get rid of it. He flicked his wrist and the dust flew away and dispersed. _Good, so I can still earth bend. _

Sokka's eyes widened as the dust flew away. _Earth-bender? Was he Dai Lee?_ He glanced at Toph who had her normal calm returned to her but she still didn't attack. She still seemed unsure but she was no longer in her daze. He looked back at the man standing a few meters from him. He looked like he was covered in sweat or he went for a dive. He had a large burn on his upper left shoulder and arm where there was no clothing. He was wearing a green top and bottom with random splotches of different shades of green. On his shirt he had a few slabs of earth and three spheres hanging from a few loops. He wore a large belt and big black boots. The upper part of his shirt was burned away and the skin underneath was also burned. He seemed older than he was for his face was hard, cheeks hollow almost like from lack of food and his body, though small was full of muscle, he could see it bulging in his arms. This made Sokka I little bit self-conscious _Am I that menacing?_

"Who are you! What do you want?" he asked threateningly, he held his sword out further to emphasize it and kept his stance relaxed.

Rahak spun at the sound of the voice and by habit didn't bother to look for his rifle and crouched down, in the process he pulled his pistol out and pointed it towards the voice. He waited a second for his vision to adjust to the pistols iron sight. Once he did he was surprised to not see a gun pointed back at him, rather a sword. He smiled slightly at the distance between them and relaxed a bit. _Yes he had a sword, good so I'm in around the right time frame. _He examined him. He was dressed in light blue, _very bad camouflage_, and his sword was black. Odd since he always remembered swords as being silver and shiney. There was a person beside him. Young this person was but the persons bangs covered her face and Rahak wasn't able to tell if this person was a boy or a girl. The person was dressed in green and a greenish shade of yellow. "You, boy with the sword who is the fire lord?"

_Was this some kind of trick question_? Sokka raised an eyebrow _and boy?! Who was he calling a boy?_ Another thing that was confusing him was that 'L' shaped piece of metal he held in his hand. It had a hole and the hole was pointing towards him and Toph. This was all so confusing.

"Listen, I ask the questions got it? Now who are you and are you Dai Lee or Fire Nation" Sokka demanded.

_O great, a power struggle, why cant they just answer the question?_ Rahak was a little angered by this who answers the questions deal. He sighed and lowered his pistol. He had said Fire Nation, which means they haven't had the revolution to become a Republic. This was good he knew because this narrows his approximate time frame down a lot. So he decided he needed only needed one question answered and that he already asked.

"Do you agree to answer my question if I answer yours?" he asked.

Sokka narrowed his eyes "No guarantee"

"Fine" Rahak was clearly angry and frustrated. He was feeling very tired and weak, all he wanted to do was find out where he was and go to sleep before he started his mission. "No guarantee here that I'll tell the truth!" He saw the boy turn to the younger one near him, he wasn't sure if it was a guy or a girl, then turned back.

"Fine, are you part of the Fire Nation or the Dai Lee?" he repeated

"Yes" Rahak replied simply hoping that Dai Lee was good or something or that they were both bad and these guys were from the Fire Nation.

Sokka's eyes widened slightly and a look of surprise past his face, he didn't expect him to come outright and say it, he was sort of expecting a lie.

"He's, he's lying" Toph said.

"Soooo, your not Dai Lee or Fire Nation? Then what are you Earth Kingdom?"

_Kingdom?!, we were a kingdom? AWSOME_. "Wait, how did you know I was lying?" he truly was puzzled by that, how could someone know if you were lying just by looking at you. Seemed like a pretty unreliable source, yet the boy put a lot of trust into it.

"I can see vibrations through earth-bending, I can sense your heartbeat and when people lie their heart beat picks up and the pressure of the blood changes along with subtle changes in the persons stance" she said simply then smirked "Nothing gets passed me"

"Except Azula" the boy snickered that comment earned him a punch.

The voice, she was certainly a girl. Rahak thought for a moment. He realized if she could sense through earth bending then she was obviously and earth bender. This meant that she, and the rest of this group were not part of the Fire Republic, or now the Fire Nation. _Good, so I'm safe_. Even though he felt a little bit safe it didn't make him feel any better. His weakness

"Ok, now that we both know we are on the sa-"

Sokka cut him off. "No, _we_ don't know anything, you still have some questions to answ-"

This time Rahak cut him off. "Look" he said. He was very tired and now that knew that there was no immediate danger he wanted to end this conversation and go to sleep. "I am not a Fire Republican… sorry I mean I am not part of the Fire Nation. I am an Earth bender and I fight the Fire Nation on a daily basis and I'm guessing you do too. So now that we know we are allies I would like to leave further questions for later because I am extremely exhausted from my last mission"

"He's telling the truth" Toph had said but she did sense something more when the man said 'he fought them on a daily basis'. She decided it was best to let the man sleep. She could feel that his heartbeat was slower than a normal person and he seemed to be trembling slightly. A normal person wouldn't notice but with earth bending it was painfully obvious that this man was on the verge of collapse. "I say we let him be"

"Fine, but stay over there on that platform until we sort things out!" Sokka said angrily.

_Sort things out_ he thought as he raised an eyebrow and looked around. He saw a girl dressed in blue holding a young boy in yellow and orange with a blue arrow. _Air Monk?_ He knew the Monk civilization died out long ago but air benders still lived. They were just more violent now. He looked behind them and saw a man dressed with only red pants, his shirt lay on the floor along with a sheathed sword. He seemed to be injured, he also noticed two people watching him in a scrutinizing manor. It seemed he was very distrusted. He kind of understood what _sort things out_ meant. Someone distrusted was nearby and someone was hurt. He sighed and earth bent himself to another platform. Too tired to care about the fact that the entire structure was upside down. He landed and promptly fell asleep.

Authors note: REVIEW PLZ btw thanks Aniasin, you really make me wana write :P


	11. Chapter 10: Twists

Authors note: I've noticed alot of you guyz havn't read chapter 8, go read chapter 8. I see a bunch of hits on chapter 9 but 8 its almost none. BTW these few chapters are a bit soft, i gues you could call them filler for the action scenes. GO REVIEW WHEN U FINISH thanks o and there will be another chapter later called 'TURNS' i just thought it woudl be cool u know... twists and turns!! ... god i sound like sokka.

* * *

It had been almost a whole day. It was now night again. Zuko had slept through most of the day. He needed the rest; even now he still felt weak but he was too wrestles to sleep. So many thoughts kept haunting him since he woke up an hour ago. There was still light out at that time but he told himself to keep sleeping. Every time he tried to he was haunted by his mother, his betrayal to his uncle, or when Aang was shot, and his most recent memory pop-up his banishment. Those were just a few. His subconscious seemed to be highlighting all his mistakes, all his misfortunes and all the pain he endured and the pain he caused.

So he stood outside where that crazy fiasco this morning had happened. It was now dark out. The moon and stars were the only source of light. Here, with the cool night breeze and quiet setting along with the thought of fighting with the Avatar but his mind at ease. It just felt right standing here, despite his injuries he felt almost happy.

He noticed someone coming up to him on his left. He couldn't make the person out thanks to his eye. He cringed slightly as that fact brought back memories of his banishment.

"Hey" was all the Avatar said.

"Hi" he replied.

Aang had just woken up. He was glad to see Katara beside him but a little sad that she fell asleep on the floor next to his bed. He sought to find Zuko and after seeing he wasn't in any rooms he went outside. Once there he saw him standing on another building and went to him.

"Um, … Yea about that conversation yesterday?" he inquired.

"It was this morning," Zuko said simply. He really didn't want to go back there. How does one explain something like that? He could plan it in his head but still it never sounded good anyway. _O well might as well get it over with._

"Yea, well basically I was trying to say I wanted to join your group. It took me a while but I realized that my place isn't with my father. I realized that everything my father has been doing was wrong." He sighed. "And it only took me three years of banishment and being a fugitive of my own nation. I also want to apologize for everything I have done to harm you."

Aang pondered on what he said for a few minutes. He remembered Roku's vision; maybe he was talking about this. He did say that his best friend was Fire Lord Sozin. Maybe, just maybe there is some good blood running through Zuko and maybe he is telling the truth.

Zuko interrupted Aang's thought by adding "And I can teach you Fire-bending before the comet"

_He is useful_ Aang knew he needed a fire-bending teacher and seeing how no one else showed up maybe he should. _I still need to talk to everyone._ He thought. He had seen Zuko fight and he liked his style. He didn't rely on power as much as Azula or other fire benders did. Zuko was light on his fight and that was something Aang could get used to.

"Fine, but I still need to talk to the group," Aang said.

"Thank you Avatar. I am truly honored you have accepted my offer" He brought his hands together and did a traditional Fire Nation bow. At which Aang bowed back. He had been thinking of saying those lines ever since he heard the story about his great grandfather. Ever since his uncle told him who he really was he knew what his mother meant and everything made sense.

_Born in you, along with all strife, is the power to restore balance to the world_ His uncle's words rang in his head and he knew he made the right decision. At that moment when Aang bowed he knew that this was his destiny and that he would face his father and brings balance to the world.

* * *

"Princess Azula, the War Balloons and a division of the Fire Navy is ready. I have also gathered the Dai Lee for a personal escort," a soldier has said. " I am the commanding officer of the lead balloon and would be honored if you would take command." The man bowed.

"Good" Azula said. Azula stood on a balcony overlooking the Hanger near the capitol. It was a large flat area next to the mountain that made the volcano where the Capitol City resided. At the end of the Hanger was a military dock where around 20 ships were docked awaiting orders, her orders. Beside her stood Mai who leaned casually on the rail of the balcony and Ty Lee who was currently in a handstand. She thought for a moment then said "Any sightings of the Avatar or his bison"

"No, my Princess. Our blockade has thickened and we had the capital surrounded, after that we extended to the outer islands. There is no way he could have passed. We also checked every ship that passed through our blockade."

Azula knew they were heading west but where could the have gone? This confirmed that they are near the Capital. It seemed logical that they would stay near and try again before the comet. but it seemed stupid to hide out for almost a month in Fire Nation territory. Azula was going to the Earth Kingdom to secure it. Even though they had Ba Sing Se and the five Generals, their armies still remained scattered and they were causing constant rebellions. She also knew that the way she left Ba sing Se was not strong enough to withstand a full attack from all the General's armies. Yet at the same time she needed someone she could trust to deal with the Avatar. She would normally go after him, but securing the Earth Kingdom would stop the Avatar from having another army and thus from ever attacking the Fire Nation again. Another loose end that needed tying up was Zuko. He was traveling with the Avatar and father wanted him dead once he was out of the way she would be the sole air to the throne. Azula turned to her friends. She had a feeling that Mai couldn't be trusted because of her feelings for Zuko. Ty Lee, she was unsure but she feared Azula enough that Azula could trust her.

"Mai, Ty Lee" she barked. The two girls looked at her. Mai continued to lean on the railing while Ty Lee jumped into the air and stood on her feet rather than her hands. "I have a mission for you two, I want you to scour the Fire Nation lands and find where my brother and the Avatar are hiding"

"What do you want us to do when we find them?" asked Ty Lee as she bounced in front of Azula.

"You will inform me, then we will kill them"

Mai's heart sank, she sort of hated Zuko even though she missed him but deep down she loved him and couldn't stand the thought of hurting him, but none of these feelings showed on her face.

Ty Lee jumped up and squealed. "Yay! I get to meet that cute guy again"

"Not quite Ty Lee. You will be in the shadows, you will not fight them until I get there." Azula corrected.

"Aww" Ty Lee wined.

Azula then turned to Mai to see her reaction, but as usual there was none. She stared into her eyes and tried desperately to read what she was thinking but to no avail. Mai was one of the few people who could hide everything from her, she didn't like that but Mai was one of the best assassins in the fire nation and extremely good at stealth.

Mai came out of her thoughts and sighed and said her usual phrase. "What ever, I was starting to get bored anyway".

"Good, you are dismissed, there should be a ship at the docks with two Salamander-lizards for you to cover ground quickly" The two girls nodded and turned to leave the small balcony and head to the docks. The soldier escorted them to the ship with them.

As soon as they left Azula shouted "Guard!"

A guard came running. "Yes Princess?" he asked.

"I want you to fetch the Dai Lee, she said I have a mission for them, and tell the War balloon fleet to prepare for take off, I will be there shortly." She said, then smirked and said to herself "I think its best we keep an eye out for my friends"

A few minutes later, three Dai Lee agents came to the balcony. "Yes maim, how may we be of service?" the one in the middle stated.

"Where are the rest of the Dai Lee," she asked.

"We only came up here, most of the others are boarding your balloon Princess" he replied.

"Good, I have a mission for you. I want you to follow my two friends, I suspect a bit of treachery in one of them and I want you to keep an eye on them. Make sure you are not found out for if you are, your fight with them will be the least of your problems" she ordered.

"Understood" the agent replied. "Should I take all my men?" he asked.

"No, just take these two with you, the rest will be under my command. That is all," she said calmly.

The agent nodded and walked away, with the other two following as the maintained the triangle formation. Azula didn't like being two places at once, but she needed to finish this before the comet so the Water tribes will have no help when the Fire Nation attacks with Sozin's comet. _Then the world will me mine!_

* * *

Zein awoke with a start in his bed. He looked around and realized where he was. He could hear his men walking around outside his quarters in the War Balloon. He got up and walked out. He knew what he had to do. After that fight with Zuko he knew Jee was right. Prince Zuko was truly honorable and that he was the only one who could actually bring the Fire Nation and the world back to peace. He just needed to know one thing, would his crew support him. He briskly walked to the control room despite his fatigue. He felt weak and sore from not eating and from the fight. He went to the large horn. He bent down and spoke into it.

"Crew, this is your commander speaking, I would like for you all to meet outside immediately." He shouted into it.

He then made his way outside of the balloon. It was still tied down, he knew his crew would leave unless he gave the order. He waited for a few minutes for his entire crew to come out. He noticed some of them had some major injuries and were bandaged up tightly. He stood tall and shouted to the crowd.

"Men, I have one question to ask you!" he bellowed. "By raising your hand, answer. Where do your loyalties lie, with me? Or the Fire Lord?" he asked. "None of this will be held against you so answer freely. Those who vote me raise now" he finished.

He stared at the crowd. No one moved. He frowned until he saw one person in the back slowly raised his bandaged arm. A smile slowly crossed his face.

"Is they're any one else!" he shouted.

Slowly, people began raising their hands until eventually the entire crowd had their hands raised. At this Zein raised an eyebrow. _Interesting, I guess I am a good commander_

"So" he turned to one man. "You would all defect and follow me if I were to defect, so you would follow me in the senseless murder of children?" he tested.

"Sir, you have proved that everything you do has a good reason, and we have survived every battle thus far, so if we have to senselessly murder children, even though I would highly doubt you would do that, we will follow you sir"

He smirked. "Good, because I have a story to tell you." He turned to the rest of the crowd. "A story about Honor, an Agni Kai, and a banished Prince!" he shouted.

Authors Note: YESSS i finaly hit 20 THOU ... (narrows eyes) now for 40 THOU

Please go and review, I would really appreciate it and it gives me drive to keep writing


	12. Chapter 11: Futureboy?

Authors note: Look, i'm really sorry guys but i had now motivation and some major writers block with this chapter. The next ones gettin me hyped up so expect an update. Honestly i hate this chapter, and if it sounds bad i'm sorry but i had to put it up, the group needs an intro to Rahak. O and next chapter ZUKO intro!! trust me it wont be as dry :P... o and btw any of you know where i got the name Maldoran from :P

* * *

Morning didn't come quick enough for Aang. He had spent the entire night thinking about what Zuko had said. He wasn't sure if Zuko was telling the truth or if he was just lying. He had already said yes, so how was he going to break it to the gang. That was another thing that played out in his mind. He needed a fire-bending teacher, but how was he going to convince the rest of the group. They didn't know that Zuko rescued him from Zhao, and they didn't have that feeling, a feeling that Zuko was good. Aang, ever since that time from Zhao when he asked Zuko whether they could be friends, Aang had seen into his eyes, he saw goodness lying underneath. The fire that would soon be used to chase him away quickly replaced that goodness that flashed by his eyes. None of the others could see the goodness, especially Katara and Sokka.

Aang sighed and got out of bed. He stretched. For some reason he didn't like sleeping in a bed, he was too used to Appa. He had tried it for a while but he didn't like it. He walked out of his room and noticed that the sun was out.

It was morning and everyone was awake and gathered around the fire pit where Katara was making breakfast. She had boiled some rice and there was chopped fresh fruit to eat with it. She had used a bit of their ever-dying supply of sugar to sweeten the rice. Everyone seemed happy despite yesterday's crazy events. This was because Katara had informed the group that Aang was ok and when they woke up the other two problems weren't even in sight so it was forgotten and the peacefulness of the morning was enjoyed.

Zuko stood at the edge of the building he was told to stay on. The buildings were connected near the rock wall at the back but other than that there was a huge divide separating the two buildings. He wasn't sure if he should go over there. He was told to stay here and he didn't want to disrespect them by going over there. He decided he would wait for the Avatar to invite him. He then caught sent of the sweet smell of rice and fruit. His stomach started to rumble loudly. A chuckle was heard from behind him. He turned his head abruptly.

"Yea man, I feel your pain. They don't trust you either eh?" he said.

"They have good reason not to" Zuko replied.

"Hmm, musta done som-in pretty bad" the boy or man Zuko wasn't sure said. His face was hardened like that of a warrior who had gone through many battles, but his form just seemed like an overly muscular 16 year-old. The boy, he assumed from body structure, reached into a pocket on his half-burned shirt and pulled out a small metal cylinder.

"Sorry, we had to travel light, it was a one day opp and I had two but…" he gestured to the burned side of his shirt where his burn was.

Puss was starting to form on it but it didn't seem to bother the boy. He opened the cylinder and inside was what looked like four squished small fishes surrounded in a transparent yellow liquid. He lifted one over his face and opened his mouth, letting the fish drop into his open mouth. He chewed for a few seconds then swallowed.

"They don't taste that good but, they are high in energy so it should take away a bit of that hunger." He said as he took another and gulped it down before handing the other two to Zuko.

Zuko looked at it skeptically. It smelled like lemons and fish with salt. It didn't look that appetizing but then Zuko felt his stomach rumble again and dunked them down. He cringed slightly. It tasted exactly like it smelled, but much harsher.

The boy chuckled. "Yea it took me a while to get used to, names Rahak" he offered his hand to Zuko.

"Zuko" he said dryly as he took Rahak's hand and shook it.

Rahak's eyes widened. "Zuko, the Lord Zuko?" he asked. _Yes of course, the scar, it's a dead give away…but I have to be sure_

"Lord?" Zuko raised his eyebrow. "I was a prince, but I just gave up my title and birth right" he sighed.

"Wait, so you're still a prince, and you just gave up…" his words drifted into thought as he tried to put two and two together. He then realized that if Zuko was still a Prince that meant the current Fire Lord was Lord Ozai.

Zuko wasn't used to having casual talk but if this was how it always turned out, with people drifting into thought in the middle of a conversation, he wanted no part in it. He was a little confused by the fact that this Rahak had called him a 'Lord'. He wasn't a Fire Lord and he was nowhere near becoming one, he didn't even want that dreaded title after all the pain and misery was caused 'in the name of the Fire Lord and the Fire Nation'. He was having enough problems being fire nation and a prince, but being a Fire Lord would make him even more hated.

"Wait did the Eclipse happen yet" Rahak had said snapping out of deep thought

"Yes but what-" he was cut off by Rahak's half thought half speech sentence.

"Dam, that means that I overshot my…"

"What are you talking about!?" Zuko said. He was starting to get a little frustrated and a bunch of very hot air spewed out of his mouth, it wasn't quite a fire but it hit Rahak and brought him back to the present. Rahak just stopped his ramblings and stared at him for a second until as if on cue to disrupt the conversation Aang fell in between the two.

"Hey who are you!" Aang demanded. He was now utterly confused. How many people are going to keep popping up on his doorstep? Zuko was one thing, but another person

"Aang! Aang!" Aang turned to see Sokka running up to him. "Sorry but this is the guy who popped out of you yesterday."

"POPED OUT OF ME?!" Aang screamed at which everyone took a step back because of the gust of air that flew from Aang.

"Y-Yea, I wanted to tell you but you were kinda out cold" Sokka said. "Look I can see we all have a bunch of explaining to each other and to the group" he looked at Rahak before continuing. "So why don't we all head back and explain our stories"

* * *

"What's _he_ doing here?" Katara said as she pointed at Zuko.

"O, Zuko's going to be-" Aang was cut of by Sokka.

"Naa, let's here this guy's story first," Sokka said as he pointed at Rahak.

"Yea, come to think of it, how did you just pop out of me?"

"Hey what about Zuko! The guy who chased us all around the world?" Katara exclaimed.

Honestly Aang didn't want to deal with the whole Zuko issue right now. He would try and postpone it as much as possible. Facing the combined arguing power of Katara, whom he could not refuse, Sokka and the comment from Toph. So he opted to support Sokka in the idea of hearing the new guy's story. He didn't even know his name! He then turned to the man with the huge burn, odd clothing and wooden stick.

"Yea, I'd agree with Sokka, I kinda want to know how you just popped out of me" Aang agreed.

Katara simply sighed in defeat. "Look we'll get to Zuko soon enough, I'm just really interested in his story"

Rahak chuckled and said "Well, I'm not even sure if I popped out of you honestly it sounds pretty weird, not to mention freaky. WAIT! Please don't tell me you somehow gave birth to me!" he ended with a horrified tone.

To be truthful he was a bit perplexed and freaked out by the idea, but the main point of the comment was to break the tension he was feeling directed to either him or Prince next to him. His was the only identity he knew. He was also happy to go first. Its not everyday you get to say _hi, I'm Rahak and I'm from the future WAZAAAA_.

"No, that wasn't exactly how it happened, you see, Aang went into the Avatar state, then lightning started to flash everywhere and you just flew out of his glowing body." Sokka said

"Yea it was weird and freaky," said Toph

"Wait, your Avatar Aang?!" Rahak exclaimed.

"Yea" said Aang sheepishly. "Avatar Aang at your service"

"Wow, so I was right."

"About?" asked Zuko. Zuko was now officially in this conversation. These bits and pieces of random information was starting to get to him, he wanted the full story.

"Ok, look let me start over from the beginning. I am Specialist Rahak Maldoran (If you know this name review :P) I am actually from approximately 400 years into the future." He finished and allowed the gravity of his statement sink in. He was smirking as some jaws dropped and others leaned back with skepticism.

He continued. "I know, I know, it's hard to believe but its true. I came here with a mission. My mission is one to kill the assassin after you, two, to protect you the Avatar and Lord, sorry Prince Zuko and third" his eyes darkened slightly. "Killing Azula" he ended.

Azula was the reason the war continued. She was the one that ended those very few 50 years of peace when Zuko was in power. She started a civil war amongst the Fire Nation and was able to chase Zuko out. She then tapped into the power of the spirit world to do an all out attack on the Nations. Almost over night the Fire nation was turned into an all out Military state whose sole purpose was fueling the army. There was no education in the arts, literature. It was pure Science and military training. Children either became soldiers or scientists. That was it. They were only Republicans by name.

" I actually didn't plan on coming here, it was sort of spur of the moment. My team saw a machine that transports people into the past. We saw a Fire Republic assassin jump in. After reading some of the logs, this is where they write mission reports and project objectives, I found out that the Republic of Fire was planning on killing you two so Azula would become Fire Lord thus ending the war now in their favor. I was sent to stop that"

After a few minutes of silence, in which everyone just stared at Rahak in confusion, awe and disbelief Toph spoke up, "Em, he's telling the truth" then, "Guess your future-boy!" she shouted with glee.

Everyone looked at her in disbelief, she just accepted this man into the group. Well if anything, Toph had the best judgement of character and if she believed this guy was good then so would they. Eventually. Sokka seemed to nod at this comment.

"BOY?! It's future MAN! not BOY! MAN" Rahak shouted. He hated being teased about the fact that he was truley a boy. He was the youngest, and that was his trademark nickname, anything stupid he did they would say that followed by boy. That always got him rilled up.

"Boy" Toph simply said and smirked.

Authors note: Go review please and tell me how bad this is :P


	13. Chapter 12: Ambush I

For the next half an hour, everyone seemed to either interrogate or truly question Rahak about everything about the future. What happens, if Aang wins, how the food is? Most of the questions seemed to be from Aang and Sokka with a few thrown in from Toph and Haru while the Duke sat shyly and watched everything unfold for him. The only person who wasn't involved was Katara. Even Zuko had asked a few questions but Katara sat there brooding. She was staring at Zuko engrossed in the conversation, with a watchful eye. Finally she snapped. She was done with just sitting and waiting for Zuko to speak up.

"Ok, now we all know who Rahak is, what about Zuko" she said angrily. "Why are you really here Zuko?" she questioned. "You can't really expect us to believe that you just changed, no one changes over night!"

"It wasn't over night," Zuko mumbled.

"Look, I know you guys really don't trust him but I think he's good now" Aang said. He knew there was good in him, just that after Ba Sing Se he had his doubts.

"Yea and besides, Aang needs a fire bending teacher and it just so happens that one shows up. I say we take it, besides he's gona have to teach Aang some fire bending so even if he betrays us we can over power him and Aang still gained something out of it. Plus if he even thinks about betraying us I'll sense it"

Zuko cringed at the word betrayal. It had been associated with so much pain, he was told that he betrayed his nation and worst of all, he accosted that word with his uncle and Ba Sing Se. Even now he wished he never betrayed him. He wished his uncle were here with him, right now.

"Look" Zuko interrupted. "I know you guys really don't trust me but honestly I have changed. I mean I even set your bison free. I know I'll never gain your trust let alone be your friends or join your group. But at least let me do my part in restoring my countries honor."

"Honor? I thought you need the _Avatar_ to regain your honor" Katara spat.

"I was mislead" Zuko said darkly. "It took my a while but I realize that what I had done for the past three years was wrong, I learned how hypocritical my nation has become, I learned how dishonorable we have become and I must set it back on track" he said.

"How do we no your not lying" asked Sokka. "I mean I trust you didn't come here to take Aang, but how do we know everything your saying isn't a lie." He finished.

"I'm a really bad liar" Zuko sighed.

"I can tell" Toph said.

"Azula got you, what's to say he won't" Sokka countered.

She narrowed her eyes then smirked. She had noticed that the Prince felt nervous around Katara. "Hey Princy do you think Katara is sexy?"

Rahak immediately understood. If she could tell a person's lying then asking a question like this would force him to lie. Katara was pretty; if he said yes he would look like a pervert, if he said no he would be lying. At that understanding he burst out laughing.

"I-uh, well you see" Zuko didn't expect this. He felt his face flush from embarrassment. Everyone was looking at him. How was he supposed to answer this? He says yes and he seems like a pervert, he says no he'd be lying. She was very pretty. _Mai_, yea_, just think about her. Katara isn't pretty Mai is pretty_. But after giving her a good look he had to admit she was rather pretty. Still, sexy isn't the word he would use.

"No" he answered simply.

"O so what, she's not pretty enough for you? O high and mighty Prince of the Fire nation" she smirked, Toph knew that he was lying. For some reason it hurt her on the inside.

"No that's not what I meant, I mean-"

"No its ok Zuko, I'm happy I don't have a lying brute from the Fire Nation gawking at me" replied Katara.

All through the while Rahak was rolling on the floor clutching both his stomach and arm from sheer pain.

"Don't worry, Katara. He was actually lying. When this guy lies he's like an open book god it's so easy to tell when he's lying" Toph smirked.

Katara's jaw dropped. "Sorry" he shrunk away a bit. "I said I was a bad liar" he defended as he scratched the back of his head.

Sokka broke the of track yet funny conversation. "Sorry to interrupt the gawk at my sister for an hour conversation but what of Zuko."

"I say he's in, I like him he should be better to toy with than Sokka!" she said gleefully.

"Hey!" Sokka protested. "O wait, yea that's a good idea!" he said as the realization dawned on him. A world without random punches and constant insults would suck if it was at him, but at Zuko here now that would be hilarious.

"Well, I'm the first one who accepted him so yea I guess he's in" He looked at Katara. "What about you, he took your mothers necklace"

"O yea, I should probably apologize for all the stupid things I've done. Sorry about attacking your village, and your necklace, and constantly chasing you" he sighed. He had way to many wrongs to right.

"Don't forget that time when you burned down Kyoshi Island, or that time at the North pole when-" Katara continued to ramble about all the times Zuko had done wrongs. The only thing she was doing was reminding him the horrible person he was. She reminded of him how he lost sight of his honor while chasing the Avatar. He was so obsessed with that one task he noticed that he had made his rules of honor more relaxed.

By now Katara was standing right in front of him. Her face was so close to his as she screamed every misfortune, every mistake and mess up he had done into his face. Then he saw something reflect some sunlight through the locks of her hair. He peered through her hair and behind it he could make out what looked like a man on a small ledge on the mountain behind them. He pushed her to aside. At this Katara was stunned that he wasn't even listening to her rant. Zuko peered at the man and suddenly recognized him. His eyes widened as he realized that it was the assassin he had sent to kill the Avatar. The way they were sitting was so that Rahak and Zuko were facing the group. The group's backs were to the assassin. He glanced at Rahak and Rahak had taken notice of the man there too. _Good at least he can help immediately._

Rahak glanced at Zuko in confusion and saw fear in Zuko's eyes. The kind of fear you get right before battle. He immediately understood and fell into an earth-bending stance. "Down!" was all he said as everyone looked at him in confusion.

"NOW" Zuko shouted as he saw the man take a deep breath of air.

Once the intake of air was take Aang turned already realizing who it was but when he turned he already saw the beam of light heading right for them.

Zuko jumped past Aang and stuck his arm out, palm facing the beam of light. As soon as the light touched his hand it exploded but Zuko controlled the blast and spread it into a dome of fire that surrounded the group. The dome of fire protected them from the next blast. That was too powerful and Zuko nearly fell from the sheer amount of strength to keep the shield up. He was also in no position to be fighting. His muscles were sore; his burns still haven't healed, if anything they were getting infected. His arrow wound was even worse for it might open up at any second. He realized he couldn't keep a shield up forever. He broke it and shouted.

"I order you to stop, I don't want you hunting the Avatar any more. I already paid you double to stop!"

Rahak automatically had combat mode on. As soon as he saw the beam he was already in the zone. He turned to Zuko after he broke the shield. He saw the young Prince shouting at him to stop. _Psh, like that's gona work._ He pulled his gun up to his cheek despite his exhaustion and ran past him at full sprint. He began firing.

"YOU SENT COMBUSTION MAN AFTER US?!" Sokka screamed.

"Sorry about that!" Zuko apologized.

Sokka was stunned at Rahak's responsiveness. What stunned him more was the sound that wooden stick made and the way he was holding it. He pulled out his boomerang seeing as how this was a ranged battle. He saw Rahak jump so high to get to the other platform Sokka would have thought he was an air-bender. In the air he saw him move his stick thingy and point it at Combustion Man and heard a bang followed by two clicking noises then another bang followed by the same two noises. He then caught sight briefly, almost half way through the distance, two small brown dots. A split second there was a loud metal clanging noise as Combustion man fell back.

Rahak landed on the other platform and bolted for cover, as he was expecting a counter attack. _Dam, he has metal parts? Got to aim for the flesh next time. _Rahak was beyond exhausted at this point. He was already sore from last night, not to mention only having two finger sized fish's since yesterday morning. He was feeling very weak and tired, not to mention the two huge burns on his back and shoulder, and the fact that all his muscles were almost dead. He sighed. He would have to wait for an opening for he couldn't go prancing around like he normally does.

Zuko wasn't in much better state as he panted after blocking yet another beam. He was using some kind of focused fire bending, and it was very powerful. He looked at the group behind him. They were just coming out of their shock.

Katara ran forward followed by Toph. She pulled a huge wave of water along with her, turned it into and ice ramp. She slid up it and converted the rest of her water in to millions of little ice shards that she threw at Combustion man. Toph pulled two huge boulders out of the ground and sent them at him followed by a huge earthen javelin. Aang jumped into the air and sent a blast of air to speed up all the projectiles.

Combustion man simply brought his metal leg and arm and shielded his body against the rain of ice shards. He then shot two beams of energy at the two boulders and they exploded.

Toph smirked as she thought her javelin would go through the ruble of the boulders and strike him. Unfortunately Combustion man simply brought his metal arm up and punched downward into the javelin, destroying it.

One thing Combustion man did miss was Sokka's boomerang that came right after the entire onslaught. It hit him right in the forehead and he fell over on his ledge nearly falling off.

"Yes! Boomerang you never fail me do you" Sokka said happily as his boomerang came back to him. He then got up holding his head. "Aww Boomerang" he sighed.

Zuko took his chance to get closer and sprinted right past the disappointed Sokka and group despite his exhaustion and his now opened arrow wound. Ember's caught on both his hands, as he prepared to use the same technique Azula used to propel herself in Ba Sing Se.

Rahak from his hiding spot saw Zuko run by him. He peaked out and realized this was his opportunity. He saw what Zuko was going to do for he had seen Jee do that countless time. He was going to jump. Rahak jumped out and decided to aid his jump with earth bending the same way he aids his own. Once Zuko reached the edge and was about to jump Rahak screamed.

"ZUKO JUMP NOW TRUST ME," he hollered.

Aang saw what was happening and sent a distraction at Combustion man by sending a few boulders. Which Combustion man quickly dispensed of using his energy beams and made them explode in mid air.

Zuko didn't have time to question or think he just followed and he jumped. To his surprise he didn't leave the ground. An earth pillar was pushing him up at a high speed.

"ZUKO USE FIREBENDING JUMP NOW!" Rahak shouted, as he was about to stop the pillar.

Zuko followed his direction and using fire bending flew high over the large canyon into the air straight for combustion man. He passed right through the cloud of falling dust from the two exploded boulders almost right into combustion mans face. He stopped pushing fire out and prepared for a flaming punch.

Combustion man caught sight of the Princes floating body and prepared to shoot him down. Rahak was expecting this. He smirked and took aim at the mans right shoulder, and did the bolt action for his rifle releasing the signature sound. He then pulled the trigger and almost a millisecond later combustion man's right side was flung back from the impact of the earthen bullet. He was distracted and couldn't shoot Zuko down.

Zuko took his opportunity and delivered the punch. The punch was so powerful Combustion man was flung against the rock wall behind him, he bounced off it and fell over the ledge he was standing on down into the dark depths of the canyon. Zuko replaced the man's place on the ledge and fell over panting from the exhaustion.

Authors note: OK pplz what did you think so far. Basicaly for those of you viewing plz review and let me know if you want me to continue this or not, thanks, anonymous reviews welcome

o and I LOL sorry this isn't build up for any Zutara... maybe a bit of confusion though :P


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